HIK  AI.I.KMANDE. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


r 


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SERMONS 


OP 


THEISM,    ATHEISM, 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 


THEODORE   PAEKEE, 

MnflSTER  OP  THE  TWENTY-EIGHTH  CONaREQATIOJIAL  SOCIETT  IN  BOSTON. 


THIRD    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
TICKNOR    AND     FIELDS 

M  DCCC  LXI. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 

THEODORE    PARKER, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts, 


University  Press,  Cambridge : 
Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  and  Company. 


TO   THE 


REV.    WILLIAM   H.    WHITE, 


REV.    GEORGE   FISKE, 


WITH   GRATITUDE    FOR    EARLY  INSTRUCTION    RECEIVED  AT    THEIR    HANDS, 


THIS    VOLUME    IS    DEDICATED 


THE    AUTHOR 

(iii) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/faithofreasonserOOchadrich 


p3  7 
1^  Q  I 


PEEFACE 


The  present  volume  forms  part  of  a  long  series  of 
Sermons,  but  has  a  certain  completeness  in  itself,  and 
is,  perhaps,  intelligible  without  reference  to  what  pre- 
ceded or  followed.  Almost  the  whole  of  the  volume 
is  printed  from  the  notes  of  Mr.  Leighton,  an  accom- 
plished phonographer ;  only  the  three  latter  sermons 
were  written  out  by  myself.  I  have  often  been  asked 
to  repeat  this  portion  of  the  series,  but  prefer  to  lay 
it  before  a  larger  public  than  a  merely  spoken  word  can 
reach. 

Boston,  July  16th,  1853. 

A*  (y, 


;o-i  Hsocr/-» 


CONTENTS. 


PAGK 

Introduction, ix 

I. 

Of  Speculative  Atheism,  regarded  as  a  Theory  of  the 

Universe, 1 

II. 

Of   Practical   Atheism,  regarded    as    a    Principle     of 

Ethics, 33 

III. 
Of  the  Popular  Theology  of  Christendom,  regarded  as 

A  Theory  of  the  Universe, 73 

IV. 
Of  the  Popular  Theology   of   Christendom,   regarded 

AS  A  Principle  of  Ethics, Ill 

V. 
Of   Speculative   Theism,  regarded  as  a  Theory   of  the 

Universe,  149 

(vii) 


VUl  CONTENTS. 

VI. 
Of    Practical     Theism,  regarded    as    a    Principle     op 

Ethics, 181 

vn. 

Of  the  Function  and   Influence  of  the  Idea  of  Immor- 
tal Life, 217 

VIII. 
Of  the  Universal  Providence  of  God,         .        •        .        .      247 

IX. 

Of  the  Economy   of   Pain    and   Misery   under  the  Uni- 
versal Providence  of  God.    Part  I.  ...      277 

X. 

Of  the  Economy  of  Pain  and  Misery  under  the  Uni- 
versal Providence  of  God.    Part  II.  .        .        .319 


INTRODUCTION. 


SOME  THOUGHTS   ON    THE    CONDITION    OF  CHRISTENDOM. 

At  Rome,  eighteen  centuries  ago  this  very  year, 
Nero  was  married  to  a  maiden  called  Octavia.  He 
was  the  son  of  Ahenobarbus  and  Agrippina ;  the  son 
of  a  father  so  abandoned  and  a  mother  so  profligate 
that  when  congratulated  by  his  Mends  on  the  birth  of 
his  first  child,  and  that  child  a  son,  the  father  said,  w^hat 
is  born  of  such  a  father  as  I,  and  such  a  mother  as  my 
wife,  can  only  be  for  the  ruin  of  the  State.  Octavia 
was  yet  worse  born.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Clau- 
dius and  Messalina.  Claudius  was  the  Emperor  of 
Rome,  stupid  by  nature,  licentious  and  drunken  by  long 
habit,  and  infamous  for  cruelty  in  that  age  never  sur- 
passed for  its  oppressiveness,  before  or  since.  Messa- 
lina, his  third  wife,  was  a  monster  of  wickedness,  who 
had  every  vice  that  can  disgrace  the  human  kind,  ex- 
cept avarice  and  hypocrisy :  her  boundless  prodigality 
saved  her  firom  avarice,  and  her  matchless  impudence 
kept  her  clean  firom  hypocrisy.     Too  incontinent  even 

(ix) 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

of  money  to  hoard  it,  she  was  so  careless  of  the  opin- 
ions of  others  that  she  made  no  secret  of  any  vice. 
Her  name  is  still  the  catchword  for  the  most  loathsome 
acts  that  can  be  conceived  of.  She  was  put  to  death 
for  attempting  to  destroy  her  husband's  Hfe;  he  was 
drunk  when  he  signed  the  warrant,  and  when  he  heard 
that  his  wife  had  been  assassinated  at  his  command  he 
went  to  drinking  again. 

Agrippina,  the  mother  of  Nero,  and  the  bitterest  ene- 
my of  Messalina,  took  her  place  in  a  short  time  and 
became  the  fourth  wife  of  her  uncle  Claudius,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  last  and  deceased  husband  of  Agrippina 
only  as  he  succeeded  to  the  first  Roman  king  —  a 
whole  commonwealth  of  predecessors  intervening.  Oc- 
tavia,  aged  eleven,  was  already  espoused  to  another, 
who  took  his  life  when  his  bride's  father  married  the 
mother  of  Nero,  well  knowing  the  fate  that  else  awaited 
him.  Claudius,  repudiating  his  own  son,  adopted  Nero 
as  his  child  and  imperial  heir.  In  less  than  two  years 
Agrippina  poisoned  her  husband,  and  by  a  coup  6)  etat 
put  Nero  on  the  throne,  who,  erelong,  procured  the 
murder  of  his  own  mother,  Seneca  the  philosopher 
helping  him  in  the  plot,  but  also  in  due  time  to  faU  by 
the  hand  of  the  tyrant. 

Eighteen  centuries  ago  this  very  year,  Nero,  expect- 
ing to  be  emperor,  married  Octavia,  —  he  sixteen  years 
old,  yet  debauched  akeady  by  premature  licentiousness, 
—  she  but  eleven,  espoused  to  another  who  had  already 
fallen  by  his  own  hand,  bringing  calculated  odium  on 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

the  imperial  family;  a  yet  sadder  fate  awaited  the  mis- 
erable maid  thus  bartered  away  in  infancy. 

This  mamage  of  the  Emperor's  adopted  son  with  his 
only  daughter  was  doubtless  thought  a  great  event. 
Every  body  knew  of  it:  among  the  millions  that 
swarmed  in  Rome,  probably  there  was  not  a  female 
slave  but  knew  the  deed.  Historians  in  their  gravity 
paused  to  record  it ;  poets,  doubtless,  with  the  custom- 
ary flattery  of  that  inconstant  tribe,  wrote  odes  on  the 
occasion  of  this  shameless  marriage  of  a  dissolute  boy 
and  an  unfortunate  girl. 

The  same  year,  fifty-three  after  the  birth  of  Christ, 
according  to  the  most  ancient  chronological  canon 
which  has  come  down  to  us,  there  came  to  Rome  an 
obscure  man  Saul  by  name  which  he  had  altered  to 
Paul ;  a  sail-maker,  as  it  seems,  from  the  little  city  of 
Tarsus  in  Cilicia.  Nobody  took  much  notice  of  it. 
Nay,  the  time  of  his  coming  is  quite  uncertain  and  hard 
to  ascertain  ;  and  it  appears  that  the  writer  of  this  most 
ancient  chronicle,  though  he  lived  sixteen  or  seventeen 
hundred  years  nearer  the  fact  than  we  do,  was  mistaken, 
and  that  in  the  year  fifty-three  Paul  went  to  Corinth 
for  the  first  time  and  dwelt  there  ;  and  eight  years  after, 
in  the  spring  of  the  year,  was  brought  a  prisoner  to 
Rome.  These  curiosities  of  chronology  show  how  un- 
important Paul's  coming  was  thought  at  that  time. 
The  marriage  of  a  dissolute  boy,  with  an  unfortunate 
girl,  was  set  down  as  a  great  thing,  whUe  the  coming 


XU  INTRODUCTION. 

of  Paul  was  too  slight  a  circumstance  to  deserve 
notice. 

He  came  from  a  hated  nation,  —  the  Jews  were 
thought  the  enemies  of  manldnd,  —  he  was  a  poor  ple- 
beian, a  mechanic,  and  Hved  in  an  age  when  miUtary 
power  and  riches  had  such  an  influence  as  never  before, 
or  since.  He  was  apparently  an  unlettered  man,  or 
had  only  the  rough,  narrow  culture  which  a  Hebrew 
scholar  got  at  Tarsus  and  Jerusalem.  He  had  Httle 
eloquence ;  "  his  bodily  presence  was  weak,  and  his 
speech  contemptible."  He  came  to  the  most  populous 
city  in  the  world,  the  richest  and  the  wickedest.  Nero 
and  Agrippina  were  types  of  wealthy  and  patrician 
E-ome  ;  for  that  reason  it  is  that  I  began  by  telling  their 
story,  and,  though  aware  of  the  true  chronology,  have 
connected  this  atrocious  wedlock  with  the  coming  of 
the  Apostle. 

The  city  was  full  of  soldiers  ;  men  from  Parthia  and 
Britain,  who  had  fought  terrible  battles,  bared  their 
scars  in  the  Forum  and  the  Palace  of  the  Caesars. 
Learned  men  were  there.  Political  Greece  had  died ; 
but  Grecian  genius  long  outlived  the  shock  which  over- 
turned the  state.  Of  science  Greece  was  full,  and  her 
learned  men  and  men  well-born  with  genius  fled  to 
Rome.  The  noble  minds  from  that  classic  land  went 
there,  full  of  thought,  full  of  eloquence  and  song,  run- 
ning over  with  beauty.  Rough,  mountainous  streams 
of  young  talent  from  Spain  and  Africa  flowed  thither, 
finding  their   home  in  that  great  oceanic  city.     The 


INTKODUCTION.  XIU 

Syrian  Orontes  had  emptied  itself  into  the  Tiber. 
There  were  temples  of  wondrous  splendor  and  rich- 
ness, priests  celebrated  for  their  culture  and  famed  for 
their  long  descent.  All  these  were  hostile  to  the  new 
form  of  religion  taught  by  Paul. 

But  the  popular  theology  was  only  mjrthology.  It 
was  separate  from  science,  alienated  from  the  life  of 
the  people.  The  temple  did  not  represent  philosophy, 
nor  morality,  nor  piety.  The  priests  of  the  popular 
religion  had  no  belief  in  the  truth  of  its  doctrines,  no 
faith  in  the  efficacy  of  its  forms.  Religion  was  tradi- 
tion with  the  priest ;  it  was  police  with  the  magistrate. 
The  Roman  augurs  did  not  dare  look  each  other  in  the 
face  on  solemn  days,  lest  they  should  laugh  outiight 
and  betray  to  the  people  what  was  the  open  secret  of 
the  priest. 

Everywhere,  as  a  man  turned  his  eye  in  Rome,  there 
was  riches,  everywhere  power,  everywhere  vice.  Did  I 
say  everywhere  ?  No  ;  —  the  shadow  of  riches  is  pov- 
erty, and  there  was  such  poverty  as  only  St.  Giles'b 
Parish  in  London  can  now  equal.  The  shadow  of 
power  is  slavery ;  and  there  was  such  slavery  in  Rome 
as  American  New  Orleans  and  Charleston  cannot  boast. 
Did  I  say  there  was  vice  everywhere  ?  No :  in  the 
shadow  of  vice  there  always  burns  the  still,  calm  flame 
of  piety,  justice,  philanthropy ;  that  is  the  light  which 
goeth  not  out  by  day,  which  is  never  wholly  quenched. 
But  slavery  and  poverty  and  sin  were  at  home  in  that 
city,  —  such   slavery,  such   poverty,  and   such   sin  as 

B 


Xll?  INTRODUOTIO]!^. 

savage  lands  know  nothing  of.  If  we  put  together  the 
crime,  the  gluttony,  the  licentiousness  of  New  Orleans, 
New  York,  Paris,  London,  Vienna,  and  add  the  mili- 
tary power  of  St.  Petersburg,  we  may  have  an  approxi- 
mate idea  of  the  condition  of  ancient  Kome  in  the  year 
fifty-three  after  Christ.  Let  none  deny  the  manly  vir- 
tue, the  womanly  nobleness,  which  also  found  a  home 
therein ;  still  it  was  a  city  going  to  destruction,  and  the 
causes  of  its  ruin  were  swiftly  at  work. 

Christianity  came  to  Rome  with  Paul  of  Tarsus. 
The  tidings  thereof  went  before  him.  Nobody  knows 
who  brought  them  first.  It  was  a  new  "  superstition," 
not  much  known  as  yet.  It  was  the  religion  of  a 
"  blasphemer "  who  had  got  crucified  between  "  two 
others,  malefactors."  Christianity  was  then  "  the  latest 
form  of  infidelity."  Paul  himself  came  there  a  pris- 
oner, but  so  obscure  that  nobody  knows  what  year  he 
came,  how  long  he  remained,  or  what  his  fate  was. 
"  He  lived  two  years  in  his  own  hired  house,"  —  that 
is  the  last  historic  word  which  comes  down  to  us  of 
the  great  apostle.  Catholic  traditions  tell  us  of  mis- 
sions to  various  places,  and  then  round  it  off  with  mar- 
tyrdom. The  martyrdom  only  is  probable,  the  missions 
obviously  fictitious.  Probably  he  was  in  jail  to  the  end 
of  his  days,  when  the  headsmen  ferried  that  great  soul 
into  heaven ;  —  and  very  seldom  was  it,  so  it  seems, 
that  he  took  over  so  weighty  a  freight  as  Paul  made  for 
that  bark. 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

The  sail-maker  brought  the  new  religion.  It  was  an 
idea,  and  action  also ;  belief  in  men  and  Life  out  of 
them.  It  had  nothing  to  recommend  it,  only  itself  and 
himself.  Paul  offered  no  worldly  riches,  no  honor,  no 
respectability.  A  man  who  "joined  the  church"  then, 
did  not  have  his  name  trumpeted  in  the  newspapers ; 
did  not  get  introduced  to  reputable  society  ;  did  not 
find  his  honor  and  respectability  everywhere  enhanced 
by  that  fact. 

Christianity  had  these  things  to  offer,  —  scorn,  loath- 
ing, contempt,  hatred  from  father  and  mother,  from  the 
husband  of  the  wife's  bosom,  —  for  probably  it  was  the 
wife  who  went  first,  it  is  commonly  so,  —  and  at  last  it 
offered  a  cruel  death.  But  it  told  of  a  to-morrow  after 
to-day ;  of  a  law  higher  than  the  statutes  of  Nero ;  of 
one  God,  the  Father  of  aU  men;  of  a  kingdom  of 
Heaven,  where  all  is  sunlight  and  peace  and  beauty^ 
and  triumph.  Paul  himself  had  got  turned  out  of  the 
whole  Eastern  world,  and  the  founder  of  this  scheme 
of  religion  had  just  been  hanged  as  a  blasphemer. 
Christianity  was  treason  to  the  Hebrew  State ;  to  the 
Roman  Church  the  latest  form  of  infidelity. 

Doubtless  there  were  great  errors  connected  with  the 
Christian  doctrine.  One  need  only  read  the  epistles  of 
Paul  to  know  that.  But  there  were  great  truths.  The 
oneness  of  God,  the  brotherhood  of  men,  the  soul's  im- 
mortality, the  need  of  a  virtuous,  blameless,  brave  life 
on  earth,  —  these  were  the  great  truths  of  Christianity ; 
and  they  were  set  off  by  a  life  as  great  as  the  truths, 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

a  life  of  brave  work  and  manly  self-denial  and  self- 
sacrifice. 

The  early,  nay,  the  earliest  Christians  had  many  an 
error.  How  does  wheat  grow  ?  With  manifold  straw  ; 
and  there  are  whole  cart-loads  of  straw  for  a  single 
sack  of  wheat  corn.  The  straw  is  needful ;  not  a  grain 
of  corn  could  grow  without  it ;  by  and  by,  it  litters  the 
horses,  and  presently  rots  and  fertilizes  the  ground 
whence  it  came.  But  the  grain  lives  on ;  and  is  seed- 
corn  for  future  generations,  or  bread-corn  to  feed  the 
living. 

Cliristianity  as  an  idea  was  far  in  advance  of  Juda- 
ism and  Hebraism.  As  a  life  it  transcended  every 
thing  which  the  highest  man  had  dreamed  of  in  days 
before.  Men  tried  to  put  it  down,  crucified  Jesus, 
stoned  his  disciples,  put  them  in  jail,  scourged  them, 
slew  them  with  all  manner  of  torture.  But  the  more 
they  blew  the  fire,  the  more  swiftly  it  burned.  Water 
the  ground  with  valiant  blood,  the  young  blade  of 
heroism  springs  up  and  blossoms  red:  the  maiden 
blooms  white  out  of  the  martyr  blood  which  her  mother 
had  shed  on  the  ground ;  and  there  is  a  great  crop  of 
hairy  men  full  of  valor.  Christians  smiled  when  they 
looked  the  rack  in  the  face ;  laughed  at  martyrdom,  and 
said  to  the  tormentors,  "  Do  you  want  necks  for  your 
block  ?  Here  are  ours.  Betwixt  us  and  Heaven  there 
is  only  a  red  sea,  and  any  axe  makes  a  bridge  wide 
enough  for  a  soul  to  go  over.  Exodus  out  of  Egypt  is 
entrance  to  the  promised  land.  Fire  is  a  good  chariot 
for  a  Christian  Elias." 


INTRODUCTION.  XVU 

In  a  few  hundred  years  that  sail-maker  had  swept 
Rome  of  Heathenism :  not  a  temple  remained  Pagan. 
Even  the  statues  got  converted  to  Christianity,  and 
Minerva  became  the  Virgin  Mary ;  Venus  took  the  vow 
and  was  a  Magdalene  ;  Olympian  Jove  was  christened 
Simon  Peter :  everybody  sees  at  Rome  a  bronze  statue 
of  Jupiter,  older  than  Paul's  time,  which  is  now  put  in 
the  great  cathedral  and  baptized  Simon  Peter;  and 
thousands  of  Catholics  kiss  the  foot  of  what  was  once 
"  Heathen  Jove."  The  gods  of  Rome  gave  way  to  the 
carpenter  of  Nazareth ;  he  was  called  God.  The  Chris- 
tian ideas  and  great  Christian  life  of  Paul  of  Tarsus 
put  all  Olympus  to  rout. 

Then  in  thirteen  or  fourteen  hundred  years  more 
there  slowly  got  builded  up  the  most  remarkable 
scheme  of  theology  that  the  world  ever  saw.  Hebra- 
ism went  slowly  down ;  Heathenism  went  slowly  down. 
Barbarism,  a  great  storm  from  the  North,  beat  on  the 
roof  of  the  Christian  house,  and  it  feU  not ;  —  No,  bar- 
barism ran  off  from  the  eaves  of  the  Christian  church 
to  water  the  garden  of  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Germany, 
England  ;  they  were  blessed  by  that  river  of  God  which 
fell  from  the  eaves. 

But  Hebraism,  Heathenism,  Barbarism  —  as  forms 
of  religion  —  did  not  die  aU.  at  once,  they  are  not  yet 
wholly  dead.  No  one  of  them  was  altogether  a  mis- 
take. Each  of  them  had  some  truth,  some  beauty, 
which  mankind  needed,  and  there  they  must  stand  face 
to  face  with  Christianity  till  it  has  absorbed  all  of  their 


XVm  INTRODUCTION. 

excellence  into  itself:  then  they  will  perish.  Individual 
freedom  was  the  contribution  which  German  Barbar- 
ism brought,  and  we  have  got  much  of  that  enshrined 
in  our  trial  by  jury,  representative  democracy,  and  a 
hundred  other  forms.  Deep  faith  in  God  and  fidelity  to 
one's  own  conscience,  —  these  are  the  great  things 
which  Moses  and  Samuel  and  David  and  Esaias  and 
Ezra  taught ;  and  accordingly  the  Old  Testament  lies 
on  every  pulpit  lid  in  all  Christendom  to  this  day,  and 
will  not  sink  because  it  has  those  excellences.  Heathen- 
ism had  science,  beauty,  law,  power  of  organization; 
they  also  must  be  added  to  the  Christian  civilization 
before  Heathenism  goes  to  its  rest.  We  have  not  got 
all  the  good  from  Heathenism  yet ;  and  accordingly  the 
superior  culture  of  Christendom  is  based  on  Greek  and 
Roman  classics:  Fathers  send  their  boys  to  superior 
schools  that  they  may  learn  from  the  Heathen;  that 
they  may  acquire  strength  of  reasoning  from  Aristotle 
and  Plato,  the  bravery  of  eloquence  from  Cicero  and 
Demosthenes,  and  the  beauty  of  Hterary  art  from  Homer 
and  Horace  and  Sophocles  and  jiEschylus,  and  that 
mighty  army  of  genius  whose  trumpets  stir  the  world. 
From  many  a  clime,  for  many  an  age,  do  "pilgrims 
pensive,  but  unwearied,  throng "  to  Athens  and  Rome, 
to  study  the  remains  of  ancient  art ;  remnants  of  tem- 
ples are  brought  over  the  sea  to  every  Christian  land,  to 
bless  the  Christian  heart  with  Pagan  beauty.  Patient 
mankind  never  loses  a  useful  truth. 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

It  is  curious  to  look  and  see  how  little  notice  was 
taken  of  Christianity  coming  to  Rome.  The  men  of 
pleasure  knew  nothing  of  the  strife  betwixt  the  old  and 
new  in  Paul's  time ;  the  political  economists  of  that 
day,  as  it  seems,  foresaw  no  productive  power  in  Chris- 
tianity ;  the  politicians  took  little  notice  thereof,  till  Nero 
sought  to  cut  off  the  neck  of  Christendom  at  one  blow. 
A  historian  —  Roman  all  through,  in  his  hard  powerful 
nature,  but  furnished  with  masterly  Greek  culture, — 
spoke  of  Christianity  as  "  that  detestable  superstition," 
which,  with  other  mischiefs,  had  flowed  down  into 
Rome,  the  common  sink  of  all  abominations.  Sour 
Juvenal  gave  the  new  religion  a  wipe  with  his  swift 
lash,  dipping  it  first  in  bitter  ink.  Pliny  the  younger 
wrote  a  line  to  the  emperor,  asking  how  he  should  treat 
these  pestilent  fellows,  the  Christians,  who  are  not  afraid 
to  die.  This  is  aU  the  notice  literary  Rome  took  of 
Christianity  for  a  century  or  so.  Men  knew  not  the 
force  which  was  going  to  baptize  Pagan  Rome  with 
the  Christian  name.  Yet  in  their  time,  while  the  vo- 
luptuous were  seeking  for  a  new  pleasure,  while  the 
Stoics  and  Epicureans  were  doubting  which  was  the 
chief  good,  while  politicians  were  busy  with  troops  and 
battles,  —  there  came  silently  into  Rome  a  power  which 
shook  Heathenism  down  to  the  dust ;  and  the  great 
battle  betwixt  new  and  old  took  place,  and  they  knew 
it  not.  So  an  old  story  tells  that  when  Rome  and 
Africa  crossed  swords  in  great  battle  on  Italian  soil, 
they  fought  with  such  violence  and  ardor,  that  while 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

an  earthquake  came  and  shook  down  a  neighboring 
city  they  kept  fighting  on,  and  knew  only  their  own 
convulsion.  So  in  the  fray  of  pain  and  pleasure,  the 
great  earthquake  which  threw  down  the  Hebrew  and 
Pagan  Theology  "  reeled  unheededly  away." 

Now  old  Rome  is  buried  twenty  feet  thick  with 
modern  Rome ;  the  civilization  of  Europe  is  Christian, 
—  aU  but  a  corner  of  it  where  the  Crescent  eclipses  the 
Cross.  Nay,  in  London  and  Boston  and  New  York  is 
a  society  of  "  unsocial  Britons  divided  from  all  the 
world,"  which  spreads  abroad  the  words  of  Paul  and 
of  Jesus,  and  in  twenty  years  has  translated  the  gospel 
of  Christ  and  the  epistles  of  Paul  into  one  hundred 
and  forty-seven  different  tongues,  and  spread  them 
amongst  men  from  the  Thames  to  the  "  fabulous  Hy- 
daspes ; "  yea,  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other. 
In  countries  alike  unknown  to  the  science  of  Strabo 
and  Plato's  dream,  the  words  of  these  two  Hebrews 
have  found  a  home :  and  now  two  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  of  men  worship  the  Crucified  as  God.  Not 
a  great  city  all  Europe  through,  but  has  a  great  church 
dedicated  to  that  sail-maker  of  Tarsus,  whose  journey  to 
Rome  was  so  significant  and  so  unchronicled. 

What  power  there  must  have  been  in  the  ideas  and 
the  life  of  those  men,  to  effect  such  a  conquest  in  such 
a  time  !  It  is  no  wonder  that  many  ordinary  men,  who 
know  Christianity  by  rote  and  heroism  by  hearsay,  and 
who  think  that  to  join  a  fashionable  church  is  "  to  re- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

Qounce  the  world,"  —  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  think 
Christianity  spread  miraculously,  that  God  wrote  a 
truth  and  sowed  Christianity  broadcast  and,  if  m-en 
would  not  take  it  without,  He  harrowed  it  into  them, 
by  miracle.  Judging  from  their  consciousness,  what  is 
there  that  they  know  which  could  explain  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  and  the  heroism  of  a  man  laying  his 
head,  and  his  wife's  and  children's  heads,  on  the  block 
for  a  conscientious  conviction?  Doubtless  they  are 
just  and  true  to  what  is  actual  in  themselves  in  believ- 
ing that  Christianity  spread  by  miracle ;  and  if  a  man 
has  not  soul  enough  to  trust  that  soul,  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  he  may  think  that  every  great  truth  came  by 
miracle.  An  Esquimaux  would  suppose  that  a  rail- 
road car  went  miraculously. 

Eighteen  hundred  years,  with  threescore  generations 
of  men,  have  passed  by  since  Paul  first  went  to  Rome. 
What  a  change  since  then  !  It  is  worth  while  to  look 
at  the  ecclesiastical  condition  of  Christendom  at  this 
day.  The  Christian  Church  has  very  great  truths, 
which  will  last  for  ever.  But  as  a  whole  it  seems  to  me 
that  at  this  day  the  Christian  Church  is  in  a  state  of 
decay.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Religion  decays,  — 
piety  and  morality :  the  sun  will  fade  out  of  the  heavens 
before  they  perish  out  of  man's  heart.  But  the  power 
of  that  institution  which  is  called  the  Christian  Church 
the  power  of  its  priesthood,  —  that  is  assuredly  in  a 
state  of  decay.    It  has  separated  itself  fi-om  new  Science, 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

the  fresh  thought  of  mankind ;  from  new  Morality,  the 
fresh  practical  life  of  mankind ;  from  new  Justice  ;  from 
new  Philanthropy ;  from  new  Piety.  It  looks  back  for 
its  inspiration.  Its  God  is  a  dead  God ;  its  Christ  is 
a  crucified  Christ ;  aU  its  saints  are  dead  men :  its  the- 
ology is  a  dead  science,  its  vaunted  miracles  only  of  old 
time,  not  new.  Paul  asked  for  these  three  things, — 
liberty,  equality,  brotherhood.  Does  the  Christian 
Church  ask  for  any  one  of  the  three?  It  does  not 
trust  Human  Nature  in  its  normal  action ;  does  not 
look  to  the  human  Mind  for  truth,  nor  the  human  Con- 
science for  justice,  nor  the  human  Heart  and  Soul  for 
love  and  faith.  It  does  not  trust  the  living  God,  now 
revealing  himself  in  the  fresh  flowers  of  to-day  and  the 
fresh  consciousness  of  man.  It  looks  back  to  some 
alleged  action  in  the  history  of  mankind,  counting  the 
History  of  man  better  than  man's  Nature.  It  looks 
back  to  some  alleged  facts  in  the  history  of  God,  count- 
ing those  fictitious  miracles  as  greater  than  the  nature 
of  God  ;  He  has  done  his  best,  spoken  for  the  last  time ! 
In  aU  this  the  whole  Christian  Church  agrees,  and  is 
unitary,  and  there  is  no  discord  betwixt  Catholic  and 
Protestant.  But  they  differ  in  respect  to  the  things  to 
which  they  pay  supreme  and  sovereign  homage.  The 
Catholic  worships  the  Church :  that  is  infallible,  with 
its  biblical  and  extra-biblical  tradition,  and  its  inspi- 
ration. The  Roman  Church  is  the  religion  of  the 
Catholic.  He  must  necessarily  be  intolerant.  Two 
writers  prominent  in  the  Catholic  Church  of  America 


INTRODUCTION.  XXIU 

within  the  last  few  months  have  declared  that  the 
Catholic  Church  is  just  as  intolerant  as  she  always 
was,  and  as  soon  as  she  gets  power  there  shall  be  no 
more  freedom  of  thought  and  speech  in  the  new  con- 
tinent ;  she  only  waits  for  a  hand  to  clutch  the  sword 
and  put  Protestantism  to  death.  This  comes  una- 
voidably from  her  position.  She  must  be  sure  that 
everybody  else  is  wrong. 

The  Protestants  worship  the  Bible,  with  its  Old  Tes- 
tament and  New ;  that  is  infallible.  The  Bible  is  the 
religion  of  the  Protestants,  as  the  Church  is  the  religion 
of  the  Catholics,  and  the  Koran  of  the  Mahometans. 
This  is  the  ultimate  source  of  religious  doctrine,  the 
ultimate  standard  of  religious  practice.  Here  the  Prot- 
estant sects  are  unitary ;  even  the  Universalists  and  Uni- 
tarians agree  in  this  same  thing,  or  profess  to  do  so. 

Then  the  Protestants  differ  about  the  doctrines  of 
that  infallible  word ;  and  so  while  one  hand  of  Protes- 
tantism is  clenched  on  the  Bible,  the  other  is  divided 
into  a  great  many  fingers,  each  pointing  to  its  own 
creed  as  the  infallible  interpretation  of  the  infallible 
word:  the  one  pencil  of  white  Protestant  sunshme, 
drawn  from  the  Bible,  is  broken  by  the  historic  prism 
into  manifold  rays  of  antithetic  color. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  for  the  Christians  as  a  whole  to 
maintain  that  they  have  nothing  to  learn  from  the 
Hebrews,  the  Heathen,  the  Buddhists  and  the  Mahom- 
etans;—  though  the  Christians  are  in  many  respects 
superior  to  these  other  sects  of  the  world,  yet  they  have 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

much  to  teach  us.  It  is  a  mistake  for  the  Protestant  to 
say  he  has  nothing  to  learn  from  the  CathoHc :  the 
Catholic  —  though  far  behind  the  Protestant  —  has 
many  things  to  impart  to  us.  And  it  is  a  mistake  for 
the  Unitarian,  or  UniversaUst,  to  declare  that  he  has 
nothing  to  learn  from  the  Trinitarian  and  Partialist. 
As  yet  no  one  of  these  gi-eat  world  sects,  Christian, 
Heathen,  Hebrew,  Budhist,  Mahometan,  has  the  whole 
Human  truth ;  and  in  Christianity  no  one  sect  has  the 
whole  of  Christian  truth. 

But  the  Christian  churches  have  broken  with  Science, 
and  are  afraid  of  new  thought.  This  is  somewhat  less 
true  of  the  Protestant  than  of  the  Catholic  priesthood. 
They  have  broken  also  with  fresh  Morality,  and  are 
afraid  of  that.  And  so  the  Christian  Church  to-day  is 
very  much  in  the  same  condition  that  Heathenism  and 
Judaism  were  at  the  time  when  Paul  first  went  to  Rome. 

Nearly  twelve  centuries  ago  the  subtle  Grecian  intel- 
lect separated  from  the  practical  sense  of  the  western 
world,  and  for  more  than  eight  hundred  years  there 
were  two  Christian  churches,  the  Greek  and  the  Latin. 
Three  hundred  years  ago  a  deadly  blow  was  struck  at 
the  unity  of  the  Latin  Church.  Since  then  there  have 
been  three  Christian  churches,  the  Greek,  the  Catholic, 
and  the  Protestant ;  the  two  former  only  conservative, 
the  latter  also  progressive,  but  not  progressive  in  ortho- 
doxy, progressive  only  by  heresy,  —  for  the  Church  care- 
fully cuts  off  the  top  of  its  own  tree  as  soon  as  it  is 
found  to  have  new  and  independent  life  therein ;  it  falls 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

to  the  ground,  and  grows  up  a  new  tree.  The  Catholic 
Church  cut  off  the  Protestants  ;  in  the  Protestant  Church 
the  Trinitarians  cut  off  the  Unitarians ;  and  now  the 
Unitarians  seek  to  cut  off  those  who  have  newer  life  than 
theirs,  newer  blossoms. 

In  the  Christian  Church  there  are  many  churches. 
But  there  is  not  one  that  bears  the  same  relation  to  the 
civilization  of  the  world  which  Paul  bore  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  ago.  He  looked  forward ;  they  look  back. 
He  asked  liberty  of  thought  and  speech ;  they  are 
afraid  of  both.  There  is  not  a  Christian  government 
which  has  not  some  statute  forbidding  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech.  Even  on  the  statute-books  of 
Massachusetts  there  slumbers  a  law  prohibiting  a  man 
to  speak  lightly  of  any  of  the  doctrines  in  this  blessed 
bible ;  and  it  is  not  twenty  years  since  a  magistrate  of 
this  State  asked  the  grand-jury  of  a  county  to  find  a 
true  bill  against  a  learned  Doctor  of  Divinity,  who  had 
written  an  article  proving  there  was  no  prophecy  in  the 
Old  Testament  which  pointed  a  plain  finger  to  the 
person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

All  over  Europe  religion  is  supported  by  the  State, 
by  the  arm  of  the  law.  The  clergy  wish  it  to  be  so, 
and  they  say  Christianity  would  fail  if  it  were  not. 
Hence  come  the  costly  national  churches  of  Europe, 
wherein  the  priest  sits  on  the  cartridge-box,  supported 
by  bayonets,  a  drum  for  his  sounding-board,  and 
preaches  in  the  name  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  having 
cannon  balls  to  enforce  his  argument.     What  a  con- 

c 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

trast,  between  the  national  churches  of  Russia,  Austria, 
Prussia,  England,  and  the  first  church  which  Paul 
gathered  in  his  prisonhouse,  where  he  preached  with 
his  left  hand  chained  to  a  soldier's  right  hand,  "  his  bod- 
ily presence  weak  and  his  speech  contemptible." 

But  there  has  been  a  great  and  rapid  development  of 
humanity  since  Paul  first  came  to  Italy.  What  a 
change  in  agriculture,  mechanic  art,  commerce,  war,  in 
education,  politics !  What  new  science,  new  art,  new 
literature  has  sprung  up !  How  the  world's  geography 
has  changed,  from  Eratosthenes  to  Ritter !  But  the 
interior  geography  of  man  has  altered  yet  more.  The 
ancient  poles  are  now  in  the  modern  equator.  Com- 
pare the  governments  then  and  now ;  the  wars  of  that 
period ;  the  condition  of  the  people.  The  Peasant  was 
everywhere  a  slave  at  that  time.  Now  slavery  has  fled 
to  America  —  she  alone  of  all  Christendom  fosters  in 
her  bosom  that  odious  snake  which  has  stung  and 
poisoned  so  many  a  departed  State.  Compare  the  con- 
dition of  Woman.  The  change  has  been  immense. 
The  compass  gave  manldnd  America;  gunpowder 
made  a  republic  possible ;  —  it  could  not  have  been 
without  that ;  —  the  printing-press  made  education 
accessible  to  everybody.  Steam  makes  it  easy  for  a 
nation  to  secure  the  material  riches  which  are  indispen- 
sable to  civilization,  and  yet  leave  time  for  culture  in 
the  great  mass  of  men.  How  have  the  humanities  gone 
forward,  —  freedom,  education,  temperance,  chastity  ; 
concern   for  the   poor,  the   weak,  the    abandoned,  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XXVU 

blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb !  Once  the  Christian  Church 
fostered  the  actual  humanities  of  the  times.  There  was 
not  a  temperance  society  in  the  world ;  the  Church  was 
the  temperance  society.  There  was  not  a  peace  society, 
the  Church  was  the  peace  society:  not  an  education 
society ;  the  Church  opened  her  motherly  arms  to  many 
a  poor  man's  son  who  had  talent,  and  gave  him  culture ; 
and  he  walked  through  the  cathedral  door  into  the 
college,  thence  to  the  great  mountain  of  the  world  and 
cUmbed  as  high  as  he  could  get.  Now  as  the  Church 
is  in  the  process  of  decay  we  need  special  missionary 
societies,  societies  for  preventing  drunkenness  and  every 
vice.  The  function  of  the  ancient  Church  has  passed 
to  other  hands.  She  teaches  only  from  memory  of 
times  long  past.  The  national  churches  apologize  for 
the  national  sins  and  defend  them.  In  Europe  the  es- 
tablished clergy  are  seldom  friendly  to  any  movement 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  In  America  it  is  they  who 
are  eminent  supporters  of  every  public  enormity  which 
the  nation  loves,  willing  to  send  their  mother  into 
slavery,  pressing  the  Bible  into  the  ranks  of  American 
sin. 

The  Christian  Church  early  departed  from  the  piety 
and  morality  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Taken  as  a  whole 
it  has  made  some  great  errors  and  is  now  suffering  the 
penalty  thereof.  It  has  taught  that  God  was  finite,  and 
not  infinite  ;  that  man's  nature  was  a  mistake,  a  nature 
which  could  not  be  trusted ;  it  has  put  fictitious  miracles 
before  real  law,  and  forced  the  heretic  philosopher  to 


XXviii  INTRODUCTION. 

confess  that  the  Church  was  right,  though  the  earth  did 
still  move ;  it  has  taught  that  religion  was  chiefly  to 
save  mankind  from  the  wrath  of  God  in  the  next  world, 
not  to  bless  us  here  on  earth. 

The  Christian  churches  neglect  the  evils  of  their 
own  time.  To  judge  from  the  publications  that  have 
been  sent  forth  by  the  American  churches  in  the  last 
twenty  years,  —  the  tracts  of  the  Orthodox,  Baptists, 
Methodists,  Unitarians,  —  what  would  a  stranger  sup- 
pose was  the  great  sin  of  America  at  this  day  ?  He 
might  read  them  all  through  and  scarcely  conjecture 
that  there  was  a  drunkard  in  the  land ;  he  would  never 
think  there  was  any  political  corruption  in  the  country ; 
he  would  suppose  we  had  most  of  all  to  fear  from 
"  doubt  of  theological  doctrines ; "  he  would  not  ever 
dream  that  there  were  as  many  slaves  in  America  to- 
day as  there  are  church-members.  Why  is  this  ?  Be- 
cause the  churches  have  concluded  that  it  is  the  func- 
tion of  religion  to  save  the  soul  from  the  wrath  of 
God ;  not  to  put  down  great  sins  here  on  earth,  and 
make  mankind  better  and  men  better  off".  These  mis- 
takes are  the  reason  why  the  Christian  Church  is  in  this 
process  of  decay. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  separated 
his  thought  from  the  new  Science  of  the  age,  and  said 
"  Do  not  think  ;  "  or  that  he  separated  his  religion  from 
the  new  Morality  of  the  age,  and  said,  "  Never  reform 
a  vice,  oh  !  ye  children  of  the  Kingdom  !  "  He  laid  his 
axe  at  the  root  of  the  sinful  tree  and  sought  to  hew  it 


INTRODUCTION.  XXIX 

down.  With  him  the  problem  was  to  separate  relig- 
ious ideas  and  life  from  organizations  that  would  not 
admit  of  a  new  growth  ;  to  put  his  new  wine  into  new 
bottles.  With  Luther  there  was  the  same  problem. 
He  endeavored  to  make  new  ecclesiastical  raiment  for 
mankind,  tired  of  attempts  to  mend  and  wear  the  old 
and  ill-fitting  clothes  of  the  Church  which  became  only 
worse  for  the  botching.  In  the  present  time  there  is, 
the  same  problem:  to  gather  from  the  past,  from  the 
Bible,  from  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches,  from 
Jew  and  Gentile,  Buddhist,  Brahman,  and  Mahometan, 
every  old  truth  which  they  have  got  embalmed  in  their 
precious  treasuries  ;  and  then  to  reach  out  and  upwards 
towards  God,  and  get  every  new  truth  that  we  can,  and 
join  all  these  together  into  a  whole  of  theological  truth 
—  then  to  deepen  the  consciousness  of  God  in  our 
own  soul,  and  make  the  Absolute  Religion  the  daily 
life  of  men. 


Let  the  word  Philosophy  stand  for  the  whole  sum  of 
human  knowledge,  and  be  divided  into  five  great  de- 
partments, or  sciences,  namely :  Mathematics,  treating 
of  quantity  and  the  relations  thereof ;  Physics,  includ- 
ing a  knowledge  of  the  statical,  dynamical,  and  vital 
forces  of  matter,  —  mechanics,  chemistry,  and  physiol- 
ogy in  its  various  departments,  as  it  relates  to  the  struc- 
ture and  action  of  the  material  world  as  a  whole,  or  to 
any  of  its  several  parts,  mineral,  vegetable,  or  animal ; 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

History,  embracing  the  actions  of  man  in  all  his  internal 
complexity  of  nature  and  in  all  his  external  complica- 
tions of  movement,  individual  or  collective ;  Psycholo- 
gy, which  includes  all  that  belongs  to  human  conscious- 
ness, instinctive,  reflective,  and  volitive  —  intellectual, 
moral,  affectional,  and  religious ;  and  Theology, which 
treats  of  God  and  his  relations  to  matter  and  man. 

The  progressive  welfare  of  man  demands  a  free  de- 
velopment in  all  these  five  departments  of  activity.  All 
these  sciences  are  equally  the  productions  of  the  human 
spirit  and  equally  amenable  to  the  mind  of  man,  which 
collects,  classifies,  and  studies  both  facts  of  observation 
and  of  consciousness. 

To  make  a  special  application  of  this  doctrine  —  the 
religious  welfare  of  man  requires,  as  its  condition,  free- 
dom to  study  the  facts  of  observation  and  conscious- 
ness, and  to  form  such  a  scheme  of  Mathematics  and 
Physics,  of  History,  Psychology,  and  Theology,  as 
will  correspond  to  his  general  spiritual  development 
and  his  special  religious  development.  If  a  man,  a  na- 
tion, or  mankind,  lacks  this  freedom  and  accepts  such  a 
scheme  of  these  sciences  as  does  not  fit  his  spiritual,  or 
religious  condition,  then  there  is  a  contradiction  in  his 
consciousness ;  and  there  is  no  peace  until  he  has  cast 
out  the  discordant  element  and  so  established  unity. 

At  the  present  day  in  Protestant  Christendom,  philos- 
ophers study  the  first  four  disciplines  with  entire  free- 
dom. No  mathematician  feels  bound  to  stop  where 
Archimedes,  Newton,  or  La  Place,  finished  his  career ; 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXI 

no  naturalist  checks  his  steeds  at  the  goal  set  up  by 
Von  Bucb,  or  Hippocrates ;  the  historians  and  meta- 
physicians voyage  beyond  the  Hercules'  Pillars  of  Thu- 
cydides  and  Aristotle,  not  fearing  to  sail  the  seas  with 
God.  It  is  universally  admitted  by  the  students  of 
truth  that  all  these  sciences  are  progressive,  amenable 
to  perpetual  revision  ;  and  that  in  all  of  them  the  hu- 
man mind  is  the  final  umpire.  The  inquirer  looks  for 
the  facts,  their  law,  their  meaning,  and  their  use.  There 
is  no  artificial  norm  established  beforehand  to  which 
the  mathematician,  naturalist,  historian,  or  metaphysi- 
cian must  make  all  things  agree.  There  is  no  Pro- 
crustes' bed  in  any  of  these  four  sciences  whereon  to 
torture  ideas. 

In  Catholic  countries  the  case  is  often  different ;  the 
Roman  Church  hinders  the  progress  of  each  of  these 
sciences  —  even  the  Mathematics  so  far  as  that  treats 
of  the  relation  of  quantities,  as  the  Earth  and  Sun 
for  example  —  by  prohibiting  freedom  of  thought  and 
speech ;  this  Church  has  established  its  own  artificial 
norm,  the  standard  measure  of  all  science. 

In  Protestant  countries,  it  is  commonly  thought,  or  at 
least  alleged,  that  Theology  is  an  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral rule  which  controls  the  other  sciences ;  that  it  is 
not  progressive,  not  amenable  to  perpetual  revision ; 
therein  the  human  mind  is  not  the  final  umpire  ;  that  it 
is  a  divine  science,  the  facts  not  derived  from  human 
observation  and  consciousness,  but  miraculously  com- 
municated to  man.     Accordingly,  the  men  who  control 


XXxii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  Popular  Theology  and  occupy  most  of  the  pulpits 
of  these  countries,  accept  an  old  system  of  opinions 
which  does  not  correspond  to  the  general  consciousness 
of  enlightened  men  at  this  day.  This  obsolete  Theol- 
ogy is  set  up  either  as  religion  itself,  or  else  as  the  in- 
dispensable condition  of  religion.  Thus  the  religious, 
the  moral,  and  indeed  the  general  spiritual  development 
of  mankind,  is  much  retarded.  Nay  the  theologians 
often  claim  eminent  domain  over  the  other  sciences, 
insisting  that  the  naturalist,  the  historian,  and  the  meta- 
physician shall  conform  to  their  artificial  standard  and 
interpret  facts  of  observation  and  of  consciousness  so  as 
to  correspond  with  their  whimsical  dreams ;  so  that  now 
the  greatest  obstacle  which  lies  in  the  way  of  human 
progress  is  the  Popular  Theology. 

In  the  time  of  Jesus  and  Paul  the  spiritual  progress 
of  mankind  was  hindered  by  the  theological  conclu- 
sions and  ritual  forms  of  previous  generations.  What 
was  the  result  of  hard  thinking  and  manifold  effort  on 
the  father's  part  was  accepted  by  the  sons  as  a  foregone 
conclusion,  as  a  Finality  in  religion.  So  the  sons  in- 
herited their  father's  thought,  but  not  his  thinking,  and 
made  his  religious  form  the  substitute  for  rehgious  life 
on  their  own  part.  If  we  sum  up  the  theologies  and 
rituals  of  ante- Christian  antiquity  in  two  words,  we 
may  say  that  at  the  time  of  Jesus  and  Paul  Heathen- 
ism and  Hebraism  hindered  the  spiritual  development 
of  mankind.  The  wheels  of  the  human  chariot,  deep 
in  a  rut,  had  reached  the  spot  where  the  road  ended ; 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXUl 

the  wheels  must  be  lifted  out,  and  a  new  highway 
made  ready,  reaching  further  on.  The  religious  prob- 
lem of  the  human  race  then  was  to  separate  the  human 
spirit  from  the  Mistakes  and  Errors  and  Sins  of  the 
past,  and  furnishing  itself  with  all  the  good  of  old 
times,  to  press  forward  to  new  triumph.  The  old  bot- 
tles were  empty,  there  must  be  new  wine,  and  that  put 
in  new  bottles.  The  attempt  to  solve  this  problem  was 
the  greatest  revolution  which  the  world  ever  saw. 
What  destruction  was  there  of  the  old!  The  flame 
of  old  mythologies,  burning  to  ashes,  licked  at  the  stars 
of  heaven.  What  construction  was  there  also !  The 
"  Christian  Theology  "  and  the  "  Christian  Church  "  are 
the  most  remarkable  organization  of  thoughts  and  men 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 


At  this  day  the  civilized  world  is  divided  into  five 
great  world-sects  having  each  a  special  Form  of  Re- 
ligion, all  of  Caucasian  origin,  coming  either  from  the 
Sanscrit  or  the  Hebrew  stock,  —  the  Brahmans,  the 
Buddhists,  the  Jews,  the  Mahometans,  and  the  Chris- 
tians. They  are  now  in  a  state  of  territorial  equilib- 
rium, neither  gains  much  upon  the  other  by  means  of 
theological  conversion.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Buddha, 
Jesus,  and  Mahomet,  their  respective  Forms  of  Religion 
spread  with  great  rapidity.  For  many  centuries  there 
has  been  no  national  conversion.  In  three  hundred 
years  Christendom  probably  has  not  converted  as  many 


XXXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

thousand  Heathens  to  its  own  mode  of  belief.  The 
Christians  conquer,- they  do  not  convert,  the  barbarians 
in  either  hemisphere. 

These  five  great  world-sects  embrace  perhaps  eight 
hundred  million  men ;  and  wdth  them  Theology,  where 
studied  at  all,  is  commonly  studied  in  fetters.  Just  now 
the  spiritual  progress  of  the  world  is  most  promoted 
by  the  Christians.  This  comes  partly  from  the  superi- 
ority of  their  Form  of  Religion ;  but  partly  also  from 
the  youth  and  superior  vigor  of  the  leading  nations  of 
Christendom.  But  here  also  the  progressive  power  is 
quite  unequally  distributed.  Christendom  is  broken 
into  three  great  sects,  namely,  the  Greek,  the  Latin, 
and  the  Teutonic  churches. 

I.  The  Greek  Church  finds  most  of  its  followers  in 
the  Greek  and  Sclavonic  nations,  and  thus  serves  to 
unite  the  oldest  and  the  newest  families  of  Clnris- 
tendom. 

The  Greeks,  the  sad  remnants  of  a  nation  long  since 
decayed,  have  now  little  influence  on  the  religious  de- 
velopment of  the  world.  For  a  thousand  years  past 
the  descendants  of  the  Basils  and  Cyrils,  of  Chrysos- 
tom  and  Athanasius,  of  Origen  and  the  Clements,  have 
done  nothing  for  the  religious,  or  intellectual,  advance 
of  Christendom.  Genius  flees  from  nations  in  their 
dotage  and  decay.  At  present  the  Greeks  seem  to  find 
no  contradiction  in  their  consciousness  between  the 
theological  doctrines  of  their  church  and  the  religious 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXV 

instincts,  or  intellectual  convictions,  of  the  individual 
Christian.  They  are  unproductive,  generating  no  new 
religious  sentiments,  no  new  theological  ideas.  Too  far 
gone  to  be  conservative,  they  do  not  even  reproduce  the 
works  of  the  ancient  masters  of  Christian  thought  or 
Christian  feeling.  Athanasius  would  be  more  a  stranger 
in  his  own  Alexandria  than  in  any  city  of  the  west. 
Chrysostom  is  better  known  at  Berlin  than  Byzantium. 
The  churches  which  once  boasted  that  they  had  "  the 
chairs  of  the  Apostles  "  are  now  indebted  to  the  charity 
of  London  and  Boston  for  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and 
James,  even  for  common  benches  to  sit  on.  Even  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  Fathers  have  fol- 
lowed the  Star  of  Empire  which  stands  still  in  the  west. 
Superstition  takes  the  place  of  genius ;  and  doting 
Greece  seems  as  incapable  of  intellectual  and  religious 
originality  as  of  political  freedom.  There  is  an  old  age 
of  nations  as  of  men.  Most  intellectual  of  nations, 
the  golden  mouths  of  Homer  and  Chrysostom  were  fed 
at  her  bosom ;  Socrates  and  Aristotle,  Origen  and 
Athanasius  are  her  children.  She  has  rocked  the  classic 
and  Christian  civilization  in  her  cradle.  Let  the  world's 
benediction  fall  on  that  aged  head. 

The  Slavonic  population  is  not  yet  far  enough  ad- 
vanced in  civilization  to  have  any  influence  on  the 
Theology  of  Christendom.  Some  of  this  stock  are 
members  of  the  Latin  church ;  the  vast  majority  are  of 
the    Greek   communion.      To    these    sixty,   or   eighty 


XXXVl  INTRODUCTION. 

million  men  the  Czar  is  an  incarnate  God.  He  is  their 
living  Law,  their  living  Gospel  too,  superior  to  all  con- 
stitutions of  the  state ;  to  all  traditions,  written,  or  only- 
remembered,  of  the  church ;  to  all  aspirations  and  intui- 
tions of  the  individual  man  ;  amenable  only  to  the  dag- 
ger of  the  assassin.  In  theological  and  military  affairs 
he  commands  with  equal  audacity ;  and  with  the  same 
submissiveness  his  slaves  obey.  His  will  is  alike  the 
standard  for  the  length  of  the  priest's  beard,  the  fusee 
of  the  canon,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  catechism.  He 
is  the  universal  norm  of  faith  and  practice,  the  great 
fugleman  of  the  Sclavonic  family,  sixty  or  eighty 
millions  strong.  Oriental  fatalism  preponderates  in 
the  immovable  Russian  church.  There  is  a  mechanical 
adherence  to  the  Byzantine  forms  of  worship.  The  old 
ritual  is  retained,  the  old  symbol  respected.  But  the 
nation  has  not  philosophical  curiosity  enough  to  study 
and  comprehend  the  old,  nor  historical  interest  suffi- 
cient to  republish,  or  read,  the  ancient  masters  of  its 
own  church ;  stUl  less  instinctive  religious  life  enough 
to  produce  new  sentiments  in  the  form  of  mysticism, 
new  ideas  in  the  shape  of  dissentient  Theology,  or  new 
actions  in  the  guise  of  fresh,  original  morality.  With 
the  people,  the  ceremonies  of  the  church  and  obedience 
to  the  Czar,  pass  for  religion ;  with  the  small  class  of 
educated  men  the  cold  negations  of  the  French  mind 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  are  taken  for  philosophy. 
The  nation  is  still  sunk  in  semi-barbarism.  Here  and 
there  a  few  great  minds,  lilte  the  rivers  of  the  empire, 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXVU 

emerge  from  this  swamp  and  sweep  on  in  grand  majes- 
tic course.  There  is  probably  but  little  contradiction 
between  the  religious  instinct  of  the  people  and  the 
ecclesiastical  forms  imposed  thereon.  There  is  no  new, 
normal  Russian  Science  —  Mathematics,  Physics,  His- 
tory, Psychology,  —  to  conflict  with  the  abnormal  The- 
ology inherited  from  Byzantium.  The  chief  character- 
istics of  the  Russian  church  are  Czarism  and  Immobil- 
ity —  it  is  so  steadfast  that  it  never  seems  to  stir.  But 
let  no  man  mistake  —  there  is  no  stillness  to  a  young 
nation's  mind,  the  root  grows  underground  before  the 
blade  appears.  In  time  of  peace  Russia  controls  Eu- 
rope by  her  diplomacy,  in  time  of  war  by  her  bayonets. 
When  she  cannot  win  a  battle  she  can  buy  the  result 
of  victory.  Doubtless  these  expectant  conquerors  of 
Europe,  —  nay,  its  present  masters,  —  will  one  day  have 
a  religious  consciousness  of  their  own,  with  sentiments, 
ideas,  and  actions  new  and  original.  When  Caesar  and 
Tacitus  wrote  of  the  Germans,  who  foresaw  the  Luthers 
and  Schleiermachers  that  were  to  come  ?  Nay,  in  the 
time  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  subtle  Erasmus  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  religious  America  soon  to  be  born  of  that 
English  mother. 


II.  The  Latin  Church  includes  a  small  part  of  the 
Sclavonic  tribes  in  the  north  of  Europe ;  the  Celtic  in 
Ireland  and  Scotland;  a  portion  of  the  Teutonic  in 
Germany,  Switzerland,  and  the  Low  Countries ;  and 


XXXVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

the  Romanic  tribes  in  the  south  and  west  of  Europe  — 
the  Italo- Romans,  the  Hispano-Romans,  and  the  Gallo- 
Romans  —  with  their  descendants  in  America  and  other 
quarters  of  the  globe.  A  few  other  disciples  of  the 
Latin  church  are  scattered  up  and  down  the  world,  but 
they  may  be  neglected  in  a  sketch  so  brief  as  this. 

The  Sclavonic,  Celtic,  and  Hispano-Romanic  mem- 
bers of  the  Latin  church,  at  present,  exercise  no  con- 
siderable spiritual  influence  on  the  world.  They  aflect 
Christendom  chiefly  by  their  brute  numbers  and  brute 
work.  The  Celtic  and  Spanish  populations  are  plainly 
in  a  state  of  decay ;  they  can  only  look  back  with  pride 
to  the  days  when  Ireland  and  Spain  were  the  intel- 
lectual gardens  of  Europe  ;  or  forward  to  the  time  when 
the  remnants  of  those  once  famous  tribes  shall  mingle 
their  blood  with  the  fresh  life  of  other  families  still  vig- 
orous with  new  fire,  and  so  shall  add  their  tribute  to 
the  great  stream  of  humanity  now  spreading  so  rapidly 
over  the  western  continent  and  the  islands  of  the  sea. 
The  impotence  of  the  Hispano-Romanic  population 
has  been  demonstrated  by  the  experience  of  the  last 
three  hundred  years.  Both  Europe  and  America  are 
witnesses  to  the  sad  fact.  When  Germany  invented 
the  printing-press,  Spain  set  up  the  inquisition.  Dr. 
Faustus  and  Torquemada  are  types  of  the  two  nations. 
Spain  has  not  added  a  thought  to  the  world's  conscious- 
ness since  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  by  the  butchery  of 
their  subjects,  won  from  the  Pope  the  title  of  "  Catho- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXIX 

lie."  In  America  the  Spanish  families  have  spread 
only  as  the  simoon  in  Africa,  bringing  storm  and  deso- 
lation. The  Theology  of  the  Latin  church  is  a  curse 
in  South  America  and  Mexico.  Loving  the  Inquisition 
it  hates  the  printer  and  the  schoolmaster :  but  like  the 
ruins  of  PersepoUs  it  retains  the  great  sculpture  of 
ancient  times. 

Italy  is  Catholic  in  name  and  form.  But  the  Italians 
and  the  Greeks  present  us  the  same  spectacle,  with  a 
difference  only  in  the  degree  of  national  decay ;  a  Tar- 
tar troop  has  subjugated  Greece ;  Romanic  Turks  rule 
Italy  in  her  decline,  the  dissolution  not  so  complete  as 
yet.  Four  great  Italian  navigators  made  America 
known  to  the  world.  But  the  continent  slipped  through 
the  fingers  of  Italy.  Genoa,  Florence,  Venice  own  not 
an  inch  of  American  Soil.  The  tongue  of  Columbus 
and  Cabot  is  not  the  language  of  a  town  in  the  new 
world.  There  is  no  Italian  church  in  the  western  hem- 
isphere :  yet  New  York  has  better  Italian  newspapers 
than  Rome  or  Naples,  Florence  or  Venice.  Italy  has 
added  little  to  the  world's  thought  since  a  Roman  Pope 
forced  Galileo  to  crouch  and  deny  the  movement  of  the 
world ;  "  and  yet  it  moves,"  leaving  Pope  and  Rome 
and  Italy  behind.  Martin  Luther  fled  out  of  the  "  Chris- 
tian Capital,"  disgusted  with  the  heathenism  he  saw^ 
Italy  affects  the  world  by  her  past  history,  by  her  an- 
cient art,  and  her  literatm*e  of  beauty.  The  prestige  of 
the  proud  city  has  still  a  charm  for  Christian  and  for 


Xl  INTRODUCTION. 

cultured  men.  The  works  of  Leonardo,  Angelo, 
Raphael,  Domenichino,  Titian,  —  when  will  they  die? 
The  laurels  of  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Tasso  lose  not 
a  leaf;  what  thunder  shall  scorch  the  crown  on  the 
brows  of  Lucretius  and  Virgil,  or  blast  the  beauty  of 
the  Horatian  muse  ?  Rome,  the  widow  of  two  civili- 
zations, sits  there  on  the  shore  of  the  Tiber,  sad,  yet 
magnificently  beautiful;  she  bears  in  her  bosom  the 
relics  of  heathen  and  Christian  martyrs,  but  with  atheis- 
tic feet  tramples  the  ashes  of  her  own  victims,  martyrs 
not  less  noble.  The  dust  of  Arnaldo  da  Brescia,  and 
of  many  a  noble  soul,  yet  cries  out  of  the  Tiber  against 
her.  Ignoble  sons,  a  populace  of  priests,  at  her  feet 
consume  their  bread.  Austria  and  France  court  and 
insult  her  by  turns.  The  Queen-Mother,  she  has  lost 
her  power. 

Yet  piety  still  treads  the  aisles  of  the  Italian  church : 
but  alas,  it  is  the  mediaeval  piety  which  tolls  bells,  fasts, 
sings  antique  psalms  with  a  half  manly  voice,  prays, 
and  gives  alms,  but  dares  not  think,  nor  work,  nor  do 
justly  and  walk  manly  with  its  God.  Popeism  is  to 
Italy  what  Czarism  is  to  Russia  —  only  the  Italian 
more  thoughtful  hates  the  hand  that  rules. 

In  the  educated  classes  scepticism  seems  chiefly  to 
prevail ;  the  negations  of  the  French  and  English  Phi- 
losophers of  the  last  century.  Able  men  reproduce  the 
thoughts  of  Aristotle  and  Aquinas.  The  bold  voice  of 
German  philosophy  is  echoed  from  the  Sorbonne  at 
Paris,  and  a  feeble  note  of  the  echo  reaches  the  domos 


INTRODUCTION.  xH 

of  Italy.  Little  new  philosophy  gets  spoken  there. 
Who  supposes  the  educated  clergy  believe  the  Theology 
they  profess,  or  trust  the  ritual  and  sacrament  which 
they  administer  ?  It  is  plain  there  is  a  contradiction  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  Italian  church.  There  seems 
a  negation  of  the  substance  of  religion,  and  an  affirma- 
tion of  only  its  form.  Italy  does  nothing  to  advance 
the  Theological  Science  of  the  world,  or  to  diffuse  a 
fairer  form  of  religion  amongst  mankind;  the  Roman 
Church,  the  mediaeval  Nightmare  of  the  Caucasian 
race,  presses  her  in  her  sleep.  ShaU  the  Teutonic  race 
spread  over  Italy,  as  the  Sclavonic  over  Greece;  the 
"  Barbarian  "  possess  those  crops  of  ancient  art  ?  Who 
can  say  what  shall  succeed  an  effete  race  of  men  ? 

In  the  ecclesiastical  condition  of  France  there  is  the 
same  wavering  to  and  fro,  which  has  long  distinguished 
all  the  action  of  this  Gallo-Romanic  people.  Since  the 
Reformation,  her  course  has  been  fearfuUy  inconsistent ; 
the  Protestant  Theology  came  to  France  in  the  form  of 
Calvinism.  The  political  character  of  that  form  of 
religion,  so  inimical  to  royalty  and  aU  centralization  of 
power,  made  it  hateful  to  the  monarchic  politicians, 
even  Francis  the  First  regarding  it  as  hostile  "to  all 
monarchy,  divine  or  human;"  its  severe  morality,  its 
devout  earnestness  and  simplicity,  were  detestable  to 
the  wealthy  nobles.  But  it  was  welcomed  by  the  manu- 
facturing and  mercantile  classes,  and  gained  for  a  time 
such   privileges   as  even  Catholicism  did  not   possess. 

D* 


xlii  INTRODUCTION. 

But  the  Protestant  star  set  in  a  sea  of  blood.  Now 
France  is  more  ultramontane  in  its  character  than  ever 
since  the  days  of  Chancellor  Gerson.  In  all  things  the 
nation  fluctuates :  now  with  loud  acclaim  the  public 
declare  the  unalienable  Rights  of  Man  and  seek  to 
build  thereon  a  Human  State ;  then,  with  acclamations 
yet  louder,  they  welcome  a  despotism.  One  day  they 
deify  a  courtezan  as  Goddess  of  Reason,  then  turn  and 
worship  the  Pope,  and  enthrone  Louis  Napoleon  as 
Emperor. 

At  this  day  France  seems  to  reproduce  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  Lower  Empire.  Paris  is  a  modern  By- 
zantium —  the  period  of  decadence  appears  to  have 
begun.  But  there  is  intellectual  activity,  profound, 
various,  and  versatile ;  no  nation  had  ever  such  talent 
for  clearness  of  sight,  accuracy  of  discrimination,  and 
attractive  nicety  of  statement.  Not  bewildered  as  the 
Germans  by  the  refinement  of  subtlety,  the  French 
mind  sees  and  reports  the  real  distinctions  however  nice. 
But  no  nation  has  a  more  divided  consciousness. 
Catholicism  is  the  religion  of  the  State;  with  the 
wealthy  and  educated  classes  of  men  it  seems  to  be 
only  a  state-religion,  a  mere  spectacle,  as  remote  from 
their  convictions  as  the  heathenism  of  Rome  from  the 
mind  of  Cicero  and  Caesar.  The  priests  forget  the 
lessons  of  Bossuet  and  are  Roman  rather  than'  Gallic, 
so  mediaeval  in  their  tendencies.  But  the  philosophers 
— the  historians,  naturaUsts,  metaphysicians,  economists, 
—  what  is  their  religion  ?     The  two  extremes  of  specu- 


INTRODUCTION.  xliii 

lation  are  united  in  the  consciousness  of  the  nation, 
which  accepts  alike  Helvetius  and  Thomas  a  Kempis. 
France  does  nothing  to  remove  the  contradiction  from 
the  mind  of  Christendom  ;  nay,  she  increases  the  trouble 
by  developing  each  extreme.  The  "  Eclectic  Philos- 
ophy "  of  modern  France  does  not  appear  as  yet  in  the 
Theology  of  this  most  elastic  nation. 

Yet  at  this  time  France  has  a  great  influence  on  the 
mind  of  Christendom.  The  powerful  Catholic  party 
reprints  the  old  masters  of  thought,  expounds  the  his- 
tory of  times  gone  by,  not  forgetful  that  scholasticism — 
which  sought  to  reconcile  the  history  of  the  Church 
with  the  nature  of  man — was  borne  in  her  bosom. 
Catholic  France  has  more  intellectual  life  than  all  the 
other  Romanic  races,  and  does  great  service  to  man- 
kind. Abelard  and  Descartes  were  her  children.  But 
alas,  her  theological  function  is  only  conservative,  not 
creative,  not  even  critical.  The  clean  and  the  unclean 
are  equally  taken  into  her  ark,  and  equally  honored 
while  there. 

The  philosophical  party  influence  the  world  by  their 
science,  history,  and  letters ;  the  rich  wine  of  Germany 
is  here  clarified,  decanted,  and  made  ready  for  popular 
use.  But  enlightened  France  does  not  study  Theology. 
Few  important  works  in  that  science  have  got  printed 
there  since  the  "  Great  Encyclopedia  "  made  its  appear- 
ance and  smote  theology  to  the  ground.  The  Bible  is 
printed  in  France  as  in  England ;  it  is  studied  in  Ger- 
many.    The  philosophers  do  little  to  mediate  between 


xliv  INTRODUCTION. 

Scepticism  —  which  stops  with  d'Holbach,  or  Voltaire 
—  and  Superstition  which  seeks  to  believe  what  is  im- 
possible and  because  it  is  impossible.  It  is  a  strange 
phenomenon  that  there  should  be  a  "new  advent  of 
the  Virgin  Mary"  in  France  at  the  same  time  M. 
Comte  publishes  his  "  System  of  Positive  Philosophy," 
making  "  a  new  Supreme  Being "  out  of  the  mass  of 
men,  all  of  them  deemed  merely  mortal !  The  old  de- 
fences of  the  Popular  Theology  are  republished  ;  but  of 
what  avail  are  they  to  men  who  have  read  Bayle  and 
the  Encyclopedic?  At  one  extreme  of  society,  the 
Jesuits  revive  the  theology  of  Thomas  Aquinas ;  at  the 
other  extreme  there  is  the  foremost  Science  of  the  age. 
Religion  never  fails  from  the  heart  of  a  nation  —  but 
when  the  Theology  which  is  taught  in  the  name  of 
religion,  and  as  the  indispensable  condition  thereof,  is 
at  variance  with  the  convictions  of  every  enlightened 
man ;  when  it  is  not  believed  by  the  priests  who  teach 
it  more  than  by  the  philosophers  who  will  not  smile  at 
it,  —  why,  the  religious  development  of  the  nation  is 
attended  with  the  greatest  difficulties. 

The  Latin  church  has  disciples  in  the  Teutonic 
family  —  among  Scandinavians,  Germans,  and  Anglo- 
Saxons.  But  they  are  chiefly  found  in  those  countries 
where  the  government  is  most  despotic,  or  where  the 
intellectual  activity  of  the  people,  even  of  the  learned, 
is  the  feeblest  The  cruel  persecution  of  the  Irish  Cath- 
olics, so  long  and  so  systematically  carried  on  by  the 


INTRODUCTION.  xlv 

British  government,  converted  men  and  women  of 
Protestant  families  to  the  faith  of  the  patient  and  heroic 
sufferers.  Of  late  years  some  of  the  most  pious  and 
most  learned  men  of  England  —  so  it  seems  to  one  at 
this  distance  —  have  gone  back  to  the  bosom  of  the 
Latin  Church.  Doubtless  there  is  much  in  that  church 
which  the  English  Establishment  has  unwisely  left  be- 
hind. The  relapse  of  English  Churchmen  to  Catholi- 
cism shows  at  least  that  there  is  some  life  and  a  real 
desire  for  piety  and  religious  tranquillity  in  that  least 
Protestant  of  the  new  churches.  Within  twenty  years 
past  the  Catholic  Theology  has  had  considerable  in- 
fluence on  the  English  mind. 

The  Scandinavian,  Dutch,  and  Belgic  Catholics  have 
little  appreciable  influence  on  the  mind  of  Europe  at 
this  day.  The  intellectual  activity  of  these  nations 
does  not  appear  in  a  Catholic  form.  Perhaps  it  would 
not  be  possible  to  mention  a  Catholic  book  published 
in  these  countries  during  the  present  century,  which  has 
had  any  appreciable  influence  on  the  thought  or  feeling 
of  Europe,  Yet  in  Belgium  there  is  considerable  reUg- 
ious  life;  at  this  distance  it  appears  the  most  relig- 
iously Catholic  country  of  Europe. 

Amongst  other  Catholics  of  the  Teutonic  family  there 
is  more  intellectual  activity.  Valuable  books  relating 
to  Catholic  Theology  are  published  in  the  German 
tongue.  Hebrew  and  Christian  antiquity  is  carefully 
studied ;  much  thought  goes  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Scriptures,  to  the  study  of  ecclesiastical  history.     An 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION. 

attempt  is  made  by  able  and  learned  men  to  reconcile 
the  Catholic  Theology  of  the  middle  ages  with  the  most 
advanced  speculations  of  Kant  and  Hegel.  Among  the 
German  Catholics  of  the  present  century  there  are  the 
honorable  names  of  Jahn,  Hug,  Wessenberg,  Mohler, 
Movers,  Staudenmaier,  and  others  of  perhaps  equal 
merit,  who  would  be  an  honor  to  any  nation.  Books 
full  of  religious  life  also  come  up  from  the  fresh  con- 
sciousness of  men,  —  both  mystical  and  practical.  The 
Latin  Church  seems  to  have  more  intellectual  and 
religious  life  in  the  country  of  Martin  Luther  than  else- 
where in  the  world.  But  still  the  new  thought,  the 
new  feeling  which  controls  the  Teutonic  population  is 
far  from  Catholic.  The  new  religious  life  —  mystical 
or  practical  —  is  not  Roman.  The  German  Catholic 
movement  of  Ronge  only  weakens  the  Latin  Church. 
Of  the  six  eminent  Catholics  just  named,  half  are 
obviously  heretical ;  two  of  them  have  been  put  in  the 
Index.  Intellectual  activity  is  the  deadliest  foe  of  the 
Roman  church  and  its  mediaeval  divinity.  Any  attempt 
to  reconcile  her  Theology  with  the  Science  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  must  needs  end,  as  the  Scholasticism  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  conviction  that  the  two  are 
natural  opposites. 

It  is  idle  to  suppose  the  Latin  Church  can  accept  any 
thing  new  and  good  from  the  science  of  these  times. 
Her  only  strength  is  to  stand  still ;  if  she  moves  she 
must  perish :  "  infallible,"  Immobility  and  Intolerance 
are  the  indispensable  conditions  of  her  existence.     The 


INTRODUCTION.  xlvU 

Protestants  may  learn  from  the  Catholics  as  the  Chris- 
tians from  the  Jews  and  the  Heathens ;  but  it  is  not  pos- 
sible for  the  Catholics  to  learn  from  the  Protestants  — 
more  than  for  the  Heathen,  or  the  Hebrew,  to  take  any- 
new  truth  from  the  Christians. 

Celtic  and  other  disciples  of  the  Latin  Church  appear 
in  the  portion  of  America  settled  by  the  Teutonic  pop- 
ulation. They  have  influence  only  by  their  numbers 
and  gregarious  action.  The  laity  are  subordinate  to 
the  clergy,  who  are  the  lowest,  the  most  ignorant,  filthy, 
and  oppressive  ministers  on  the  continent,  and  as  else- 
where, studiously  keep  the  people  in  darkness  and  the 
most  slavish  subjection.  The  Latin  Church  has  lost 
none  of  her  intolerance  and  despotism  by  removing  to 
America ;  learning  nothing  and  forgetting  nothing,  she 
still  claims  the  right  to  cut  off"  the  head  of  heresy  with 
the  sword.  She  only  wants  the  power.  The  toothless 
old  lion  of  the  mediaeval  wilderness,  his  claws  pared 
off,  roams  abroad  in  the  new  world ;  he  journeys  in 
"  clippers,"  in  steamboats,  in  railway  cars ;  looks  at  the 
ballot-box,  the  free  school,  the  newspaper,  and  the  Bible, 
hating  them  all.  Now  and  then  he  roars  after  the 
old  fashion ;  but  no  Inquisition  echoes  his  voice.  He 
has  no  teeth,  no  claws ;  is  not  a  dangerous  beast.  He 
loved  European  Slavery;  he  loves  also  American  Sla- 
very ;  and  equally  hates  a  negro  and  a  scholar. 

A  great  tide  of  immigration  sets  continually  to  Amer- 
ica. It  is  chiefly  Catholics  who  come,  many  pious  and 
holy  men  among  them  with  whom  their  Theology  is 


Xlviii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  result  of  conviction,  at  least  of  satisfied  experience ; 
many  are  ignorant,  low,  and  unfortunate  men,  who  are 
Catholics  from  position,  they  cannot  yet  go  alone  in 
religion,  and  wish  a  priest  with  assumed  authority  to 
guide,  or  push,  or  drive  them.  Fear  of  the  priest  and 
of  hell  is  the  hangman's  knot  to  hold  them  in  order. 
But  many  are  Catholics  in  Europe  from  indifference  or 
from  fear.  In  America  they  cease  to  be  Catholics.  If 
the  immigrants  from  Catholic  countries  in  the  present 
century,  with  their  descendants,  amount  to  four  mill- 
ions —  a  moderate  estimate  —  then  it  appears  that  out 
of  thirteen  persons  who  were  reputed  Catholics  in  Eu- 
rope, or  are  actually  born  of  such,  not  four  remain  in 
the  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America. 

In  the  Latin  Church  as  a  whole,  little  is  done  to 
reconcile  the  actual  consciousness  of  men  with  the 
traditional  Theology.  Scotus  Erigena  taught  that  "  all 
authority  which  is  not  confirmed  by  right  reason  seems 
to  be  weak ; "  "  accordingly  we  must  resort  to  reason 
first  and  authority  afterwards."  The  Scholastic  move- 
ment may  be  dated  from  these  words,  whereon  Erigena 
stood  wellnigh  alone  in  his  time.  Now  the  aim  of 
the  Latin  Church,  —  nay,  it  always  has  been,  —  is  to 
subordinate  Man  to  the  Church,  reason  to  the  tradition 
of  the  past,  or  the  caprice  of  the  present :  accordingly 
she  does  not  allow  her  disciples  to  study  any  one  of  the 
sciences  in  the  normal  manner,  with  perfectly  free  indi- 
viduality of  spirit.     Hence  she  aims  to  control  the  in- 


INTEODUCTION.  xlix 

tellectual  convictions  of  mankind,  making  her  mediaeval 
catechism  the  norm  of  all  science.  To  this  end  she 
endeavors  to  keep  the  mass  of  her  people  uneducated, 
for  "  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion  "  such  as  she 
requires  ;  so  she  hates  the  free  school  and  the  free  pulpit 
and  the  free  press.  She  hampers  the  learned  class  of 
men  and  prohibits  them  from  publishing  their  individual 
opinions ;  and  hinders  them  from  reading  the  books 
which  contain  the  new  sentiments  and  ideas  of  the 
times.  The  bosom  of  this  church  feeds  the  most  odious 
tyrannies  of  the  age.  Her  clergy  —  with  honorable 
exceptions  —  are  the  allies,  the  advisers,  and  the  tools 
of  the  tormentor ;  and  deserve  the  scorn  and  loathing 
of  the  people  whom  they  deceive,  beguile,  and  oppress. 
The  name  of  Jesuit  in  all  countries  has  won  a  repu- 
tation which  no  class  of  men  ever  had  before.  In 
America,  the  managers  of  the  Catholic  pulpits,  with 
their  subordinates,  favor  the  most  iniquitous  measures 
of  Spanish  cruelty,  or  of  our  own  Anglo-Saxon  hard- 
heartedness.  It  is  sad  to  see  the  well-meaning,  but 
ignorant,  disciples  of  this  church  in  America  exploitered 
by  a  twofold  Jesuitry — Romish  priests  unfeignedly 
despotic,  and  American  politicians  pretending  to  democ- 
racy. But  I  doubt  not  there  are  in  the  United  States 
individual  priests  of  sound  learning,  of  true  and  beauti- 
ful philanthropy,  of  natural  piety.  Some  have  been 
born  here,  others  have  found  in  republican  and  protes- 
tant  America  the  asylum  which  the  old  world  could 
not  offer.     In  Europe  there  are  many  such  scattered 

E 


1  INTRODUCTION. 

abroad  in  the  humble  offices  of  the  Church.  Nay, 
sometimes  they  find  their  way  to  a  lofty  place.  Such 
men  in  a  Church  which  suits  their  consciousness  break 
the  bread  of  humanity  from  house  to  house.  Long 
after  Christianity  became  one  of  the  religions  of  the 
world  there  were  truly  religious  men  and  women  who 
found  rest  for  their  souls  in  Hebraism  or  Heathenism, 
in  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 


The  last  great  sect  may  be  called  the  Teutonic 
Church,  distinguished  by  its  Protest  against  some  of 
the  doctrines  of  both  its  predecessors.  Catholicism  is 
the  religion  of  the  Romanic  families  of  Christendom ; 
Protestantism  of  the  Teutonic  families.  The  love  of 
free  individuality,  which  has  always  distinguished  this 
great  family  of  men,  began  its  opposition  to  the  Latin 
Church  more  than  six  hundred  years  ago.  From  Dutch 
Peter  of  Bruis,  in  the  twelfth  century,  to  Swabian  Dr. 
Strauss  in  the  nineteenth,  the  most  powerful  rehgious 
opponents  of  the  ancestral  Theology  of  Christendom 
have  been  of  the  Teutonic  stock.  Even  the  French 
anti- Catholicism  of  the  last  century  was  of  Enghsh 
origin  and  went  over  the  channel  to  make  its  fortune. 

Protestants  there  are  of  other  families  scattered  about 
in  all  corners  of  Christendom.  But  those  of  the  Scla- 
vonic and  Ugrian  famihes  in  the  East  of  Europe,  of 
the  various  Romanic  tribes  in  the  South  and  West, 
have  now  Httle  influence  on  the  mind  of  Christendom, 


INTRODUCTION.  ll 

and  may  be  neglected  in  this  brief  sketch.  But  the  ser- 
vices of  those  tribes,  in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom, 
should  not  be  forgot.  The  world  ought  to  remember 
that,  spite  of  ethnological  diversities,  human  nature  is 
still  the  same,  loving  the  true,  the  beautiful,  the  just, 
the  holy,  and  the  good ;  that  Jesus  and  Paul  were 
Jews ;  that  Origen  was  an  Alexandrian  Greek ;  that 
Pelagius  was  a  Celt ;  that  Spain  bore  Servetus  in  her 
bosom ;  that  France  was  the  mother  of  John  Calvin ; 
that  Italy  gave  birth  to  Occhino,  the  Socini,  and  many 
of  their  kin ;  that  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague, 
though  lighting  their  lamps  at  a  Teutonic  spark,  were 
yet  of  another  family  ;  that  Sclavonians  in  Poland,  and 
Mongol  Ugrians  in  Transylvania  afforded  sympathy 
and  shelter  to  men  who  fled  thither,  centuries  ago,  with 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  of  religious  freedom  in  their 
hands.  Still  the  territorial  home  of  religious  freedom  in 
modern  times,  and  the  eminent  love  of  free  individuality 
in  religion  belong  distinctively  to  the  various  tribes  of 
the  Teutonic  family.  They  may  be  divided  as  before 
into  Scandinavians,  Germans,  and  Anglo-Saxons. 

The  religious  sentiments  and  theological  doctrines  of 
ih3  Scandinavians  have  little  influence  on  the  spiritual 
development  of  the  other  nations  of  Christendom  at 
present ;  and  so  in  this  sketch  they  may  be  passed  by, 
not  without  gratitude  for  the  obstinate  heroism  which 
went  from  the  North  with  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
secured  existence  to  Protestantism  in  the  centre  of  Eu- 


lii  INTRODUCTION. 

rope  when  Jesuitism  and  royalty  clutched  at  its  life. 
The  Germans  and  Anglo-Saxons  require  further  and 
extended  notice :  for  one  of  them  is  the  most  specula- 
tive and  scientific,  and  the  other  is  the  most  practical 
people  that  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  history  of 
mankind  ;  and  both  have  a  deep  and  wide  influence  on 
the  affairs  of  Christendom  at  this  day. 

In  Germany  the  natural  religiousness  of  the  people 
has  been  much  hindered  by  the.  political  circumstances 
of  the  several  States.  The  frequent  wars  that  since  the 
days  of  John  Huss  have  disturbed  the  land,  which  is  the 
battle  field  in  the  long  contest  between  ancient  bondage 
and  modern  freedom ;  the  oppressive  character  of  the 
local  governments ;  the  ecclesiastical  routine,  estab- 
lished by  the  State  and  enforced  with  the  bayonet ;  the 
restrictions  of  industry  in  many  forms  —  all  tend  to  hin- 
der the  development  of  religion  in  the  people,  and  still 
more  in  the  most  enliglitened  classes  of  the  nation. 
But  serious  and  most  profound  and  most  varied  at- 
tempts have  been  made  by  this  people  to  reconcile  hu- 
man consciousness  with  the  traditional  Theology  of  the 
Christian  Church.  In  some  Universities  Theology  is 
studied  with  the  same  freedom  as  the  other  sciences. 
Germany  is  the  only  country  of  Christendom  where  this 
Queen-mother  of  Science  is  treated  with  such  respect. 
Paul  and  Jesus  are  regarded  as  men,  not  as  babies. 
The  mind  of  the  Germans  has  some  qualities  well  fit- 
ted to  solve  the  theological  problems  of  the  age.     In- 


INTRODUCTION.  lui 

tuitive  to  a  great  degree,  as  their  originality  in  many- 
departments  abundantly  proves ;  deeply  religious  by 
nature  as  the  ante- Christian  modes  of  worship  made 
plain  to  Roman  Tacitus,  and  as  the  mysticism  of  the 
nation  has  shown  ever  since  the  days  of  Saint  Boni- 
facius  ;  creative  and  imaginative  as  no  other  nation  has 
ever  been,  —  a  fact  proven  by  the  wide  spread  and  char- 
acteristic national  music,  by  the  rich  and  various  litera- 
ture of  the  educated,  and  still  more  by  the  legends  and 
songs,  the  wild  flowers  of  imagination,  which  have 
sprung  up  from  the  bosom  of  the  people,  as  the  Forget- 
me-not,  the  Violet,  the  Daisy,  and  manifold  Heaths  from 
their  meadows  and  mountains,  for  the  creative  imagina- 
tion seems  as  universal  in  the  people  as  the  plastic 
forms  of  vegetation  in  Nature ;  laborious  and  patient, 
so  that  their  scholars  are  the  most  numerous  and 
learned  that  the  human  race  ever  bore  ;  cosmopolitan 
and  universal  to  a  degree  not  deemed  possible  to  the 
ancient  Greeks,  counting  nothing  unclean  because  it  is 
common,  nothing  inaccessible  because  lofty  and  hard  to 
come  by,  and  nought  barbarian  however  foreign  ;  sub- 
tle in  discrimination  ;  nice  in  analysis  of  facts  of  obser- 
vation and  still  more  of  facts  of  consciousness ;  of  great 
power  to  generalize,  often  running  to  excess ;  with  a 
natural  or  acquired  tendency  to  the  world  of  thoughts 
and  feeling  rather  than  to  the  details  of  commerce  and 
art ;  with  a  language  so  pliant  that  it  takes  any  form 
which  the  human  mind  needs  for  its  most  various  pur- 
poses of  intellectual  advancement,  inferior  only  io  the 


liv  INTKODUCTION. 

ancient  Greek,  —  it  seems  that  the  Germans  are  singu- 
larly fitted  to  solve  the  theological  problems  of  the 
world.  All  the  new  theological  thought  of  Christendom 
for  the  last  three  hundred  years  has  come  from  some 
tribe  of  this  great  Teutonic  family.  The  Roman  State 
was  broken  by  Saxon  Herman  ;  the  Roman  Church  by 
Saxon  Luther  on  the  same  "  red  earth  "  of  Germany. 
In  vain  Rome  cried  "  Give  me  back  Varus  and  his 
legions ; "  in  vain  "  Give  me  back  my  infallible  Pope 
and  his  Indulgences."  Germany  .broke  with  Rome. 
The  nation  which  invented  Gunpowder  and  the  Print- 
ing-Press  demanded  free  individuality  of  spirit  in  mat- 
ters of  religion. 

Since  Luther's  time,  and  long  before  it,  the  German 
mind  has  studied  Theology  devoutly  and  manfuUy. 
The  interference  of  government  has  indeed  checked 
both  religious  feeling  and  theological  speculation;  it 
has  prevented  neither.  Free  thought,  however,  has  not 
found  any  general  expression  in  the  pulpit,  but  in  the 
colleges  ;  it  speaks  by  the  iron  lips  of  the  press,  not  the 
living  tongue  of  the  preacher ;  it  is  addressed  to  the 
learned,  not  the  people.  So  while  the  Shepherd  has 
revelled  in  intellectual  plenty  with  all  the  corn  of 
whole  Egypts  at  his  command,  the  flock  has  grazed 
in  scanty  parish-commons,  waterless  and  brown,  or 
browsed  on  Theology,  on  dry  and  leafless  catechisms. 
The  learned  philosopher  must  preach  what  the  un- 
learned kings  command ;  he  may  think,  and  print  for 
the  army  of  scholars,  what  heresy  he  will.     The  result 


INTRODUCTION.  Iv. 

has  been  a  sad  one  for  the  shepherd  and  the  flock,  the 
philosopher  and  the  kings. 

The  great  army  of  theological  scholars  in  Germany- 
may  be  divided  into  two  grand  divisions,  namely :  the 
Biblicists  who  make  the  Scriptures  the  norm  and  stand- 
ard measure  of  Religion,  Theology  and  all  which  per- 
tains thereto  ;  and  the  Philosophers,  who  make  the  hu- 
man Spirit  the  standard  measure  in  Theology  as  in  all 
science,  in  religious,  as  in  aesthetic,  ethical,  or  affectional 
affairs. 

Each  of  these  parties,  the  Biblicists  and  the  Philoso- 
phers, may  be  again  divided  into  two  brigades  :  namely, 
the  Supernaturalists  who  believe  in  miracles,  and  the 
Naturalists  who  reject  miracles ;  and  each  brigade  into 
its  Right  Wing  and  its  Left  Wing ;  each  of  these  into 
an  Extreme  Right  and  Extreme  Left.  So  in  this  theo- 
logical host  there  are  the  Biblicists  and  Philosophers, 
made  up  of  biblical  Naturalists  and  biblical  Supernat- 
uralists, and  of  philosophical  Naturalists  and  philo- 
sophical Supernaturalists ;  with  their  Extreme  Right 
and  Extreme  Left.  In  the  line  of  Christians,  for  mas- 
tery of  the  world  battling  face  to  face  against  the  great 
antagonistic  sects  —  Brahmans  and  Buddhists,  Jews, 
Mahometans,  and  Heathens, — the  Biblicists  stand  next 
to  the  Catholics,  the  Extreme  Right  of  the  Bibhcal 
Supernaturalists  touching  the  Left  Wing  of  the  Latin 
Church.  The  Philosophical  Naturalists  are  at  the 
opposite  end  of  this  German  army,  their  Extreme  Left 
bordering,  not  distinguishably,  upon  Atheists  and  oth- 
ers of  like  sort. 


Ivi  INTRODUCTION. 

All  phases  of  Christian  speculation  and  Christian 
feeling  are  reproduced,  examined,  and  judged  by  this 
army  of  students.  The  air  rings  with  the  thunder  of 
the  captains  and  the  shouting.  The  ground  is  cum- 
bered with  the  missiles  —  historical,  exegetical,  philo- 
logical, philosophical,  mystical  —  which  are  cast  at  the 
other  sects,  at  the  Catholics,  and  still  more  at  each 
other.  But  to  drop  the  military  metaphor  —  a  serious 
attempt  is  making  in  Germany  to  study  Theology  as  a 
Science,  with  freedom  and  impartiality.  Mistakes  and 
Errors  must  needs  be  made.  Many  Sins  also  will  be 
and  are,  doubtless,  committed,  but  much  truth  comes  to 
light.  Some  writers  affirm  the  absolute  truth  of  every 
word  in  the  Bible ;  others  deny  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  and  the  existence  of  God,  and  demand  the  "  Re- 
habilitation of  the  Flesh  in  its  aboriginal  supremacy 
over  the  spirit  of  man." 

Not  to  dwell  on  the  monstrous  tyranny  now  exercised 
by  the  government  in  some  parts  of  Germany,  to  one 
at  this  distance  there  appear  three  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  the  German  Protestant  churches ;  namely,  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  are  not  even  spectators  to  the 
controversy,  for  the  difference  of  culture  between  the 
scholar  and  the  practical  man  is  so  great  that  the  two 
are  incomprehensible  to  each  other.  Then  the  scholars, 
in  consequence  partly  of  their  seclusion  from  the  people 
and  of  their  unpractical  character,  use  such  vague 
terms  that  it  is  often  difficult  to  apprehend  their  mean- 
ing;   subtler  than  Athenian  and  Alexandrian  Greeks, 


INTRODUCTION.  Ivii 

nice  as  the  quibbling  schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
they  seem  often  entangled  in  their  own  intricate  phrase- 
ology. Again,  they  are  intellectual  and  speculative 
more  than  ethical  and  practical. 

But  spite  of  these  faults  Christendom  owes  a  great 
obligation  to  the  German  Scholars  of  the  last  seventy 
years,  not  to  mention  the  noble  men  who  preceded 
them,  for  the  services  they  have  rendered  mankind  by 
exploring  the  depths  of  human  consciousness  and  ex- 
pounding the  past  history  of  the  race.  The  immoral 
and  atheistical  philosophers  are  but  exceptions  to  the 
general  rule.  In  the  breaking  up  of  old  dogmas  there 
is  always  much  abnormal  action ;  a  revolution  is  a 
turning  over  and  over. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  are  a  burly-minded  race  of  men ; 
more  ethical  than  imaginative,  artistic,  or  philosophi- 
cal, they  are  the  most  practical  people  at  this  day  in  all 
Christendom.  "With  consummate  skill  to  organize 
things  into  machines,  and  men  into  industrial  States, 
they  have  now  the  same  controlling  force  in  the  practi- 
cal affairs  of  the  Teutonic  nations,  —  yes,  of  Christen- 
dom, —  which  the  Germans  have  in  the  world  of  pure 
thinking.  The  Anglo-Saxon  loves  things  ;  the  German 
thoughts.  The  one  symbolizes  his  individuality  by  a 
visible  hedge  about  his  field,  distinguishing  it  from  his 
neighbor's  property;  the  other  by  some  peculiar  Idea 
of  his  own ;  one  conquers  new  lands,  accumulates 
material  riches,  and  founds  States ;  the  other  conquers 
ideas,    accumulates    vast    intellectual    treasures    and 


Iviii  INTRODUCTION. 

founds  Systems  of  Philosophy  and  Theology.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  is  singularly  direct,  simple,  and  devoid  of 
subtlety ;  his  mind,  his  language,  and  his  government, 
are  distinguished  for  plainness  and  simplicity  —  for  ab- 
sence of  complication.  He  seizes  things  by  their  great 
relations,  and  seldom  understands  the  nicer  complica- 
tions which  are  so  attractive  to  the  Germans.  This 
simplicity  appears  also  in  the  metaphysical  systems  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  in  their  Theology.  There  are 
numerous  sects  in  their  churches ;  but  they  depend  on 
obvious  and  palpable  differences,  not  on  nice  and  ab- 
struse distinctions.  The  sects  differ  in  the  form  of 
church-government  —  by  Bishops,  by  Elders,  or  the 
People  ;  in  the  form  of  the  ritual  —  baptizing  in  baby- 
hood, or  in  manhood,  from  a  porringer  or  a  pond ;  in 
the  arithmetic  of  deity  —  considering  the  Godhead  as 
one  person,  or  as  more  than  one  ;  in  the  damnation,  or 
salvation  of  mankind.  These  and  similar  differences, 
easily  comprehended  by  any  one  who  can  count  his 
fingers,  are  the  matters  on  which  the  Anglo-Saxons 
divide  into  sects.  The  subtle  questions  which  vexed 
the  Greeks  in  the  Patristic  age,  the  Italians  and  Celts 
in  the  Scholastic  age,  or  the  modern  Germans  in  the 
Critical  age,  seldom  disturb  the  sturdy  and  straight- 
forward intellect  of  the  English  and  Americans,  intent 
on  the  ultimatum  of  practice,  not  the  process  of  specu- 
lation. 

This  great  tribe  of  the  Teutonic  family  —  distributed 
into  English  and  Americans  —  is  just  now  in  a  quite 


INTRODUCTION.  lix 

interesting  period  of  spiritual  development.  It  has 
accepted  the  traditional  Theology  of  the  Christian 
Church  with  various  superficial  modifications  ;  has 
taken  pains  not  to  improve  this  Theology,  deeming 
it  not  susceptible  of  improvement,  not  amenable  to  the 
mind  of  man.  And  it  has  now  come  to  such  a  pass 
that  there  is  a  plain  and  painful  contradiction  between 
the  Popular  Theology  and  the  consciousness  of  en- 
lightened men. 

In  England  the  majority  of  the  people  are  doubtless 
open  dissenters  from  the  Established  Church.  It  is  not 
easy  to  estimate  the  amount  of  secret  dissent  in  that 
Church  itself,  or  of  private  disgust  at  the  Popular 
Theology  in  the  ranks  of  professing  dissenters.  But 
to  judge  from  the  scientific,  the  historical,  and  the 
BBsthetic  literature  of  England  for  the  pa^t  twenty 
years,  and  from  the  avidity  with  which  profound  trea- 
tises that  show  the  insufiiciency  of  this  Theology  have 
been  received,  it  is  plain  that  the  mind  of  that  country 
no  longer  accepts  the  Theology  of  the  churches.  The 
negations  of  both  the  biblical  and  philosophical  Nat- 
uralists of  Germany,  have  had  a  rather  silent,  but 
apparently  a  profound  influence  on  the  theological 
opinions  of  the  nation.  Eminent  talent  seldom  ap- 
pears in  her  churches  —  established,  or  dissenting. 
They  are  not  the  centres  of  religious  life.  Valuable 
institutions,  as  a  whole,  to  keep  the  average  men  from 
falling  back ;  valuable  to  urge  some  of  the  hindmost 
men  forward,  they  yet  do  not  lead  the  nation  in  philan- 


Ix  INTRODUCTION. 

thropic  and  religious  feeling,  in  theological  thought,  or 
in  moral  action ;  and  accordingly  fail  of  the  threefold 
function  of  a  Church. 

In  America  no  form  of  religion  is  established  by  law ; 
all  the  world-sects,  as  well  as  all  the  Christian  sects,  are 
theoretically  free  and  equal,  subject  to  the  same  eco- 
nomical and  ethical  supervision  of  the  civil  power.  This 
circumstance  has  been  eminently  advantageous  to  the 
spiritual  growth  of  the  people.  No  clergyman  can  ap- 
peal to  the  bayonet  to  enforce  his  feeble  argument, 
or  to  bring  hearers  to  his  meeting-house.  A  few 
laws  depriving  men  of  certain  civil  rights  if  they  lack 
the  legal  minimum  of  religious  belief,  or  punishing 
them  for  the  utterance  of  antichristian  opinions,  still 
live  on  the  statute-book,  but  they  are  eminently  excep- 
tional in  this  country,  and  fast  becoming  obsolete.  All 
is  left  to  the  voluntary  activity  of  the  people.  The  im- 
mediate practical  consequence  has  been  a  multiplica- 
tion of  churches,  of  preachers,  and  of  hearers.  No 
Christian  country  of  large  extent  is  so  well  furnished 
with  meeting-houses  and  with  clergymen  ;  in  no  coun- 
try is  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  found  in 
the  churches  on  Sunday;  nowhere  is  the  Bible,  with 
religious  books  and  periodicals,  so  common,  and  uni- 
versally diffused.  Theological  Seminaries  are  erected 
by  each  denomination,  and  the  means  provided  for  edu- 
cating, up  to  the  level  of  the  nation,  such  talent  as 
moves  towards  the  pulpit.  Each  denomination  takes 
great  pains  with  the  ecclesiastical  training  of  the  chil- 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixi 

dren.     Competition  has  the  same  effect  in  the  churches 
as  the  market. 

The  Americans  have  applied  the  first  principles  of 
the  Cartesian  method  in  philosophy  to  every  thing 
except  what  concerns  Theology  and  Religion.  There 
they  have  mainly  consented  to  walk  by  the  old  tradi- 
tions. But  the  difference  between  the  old  and  the  new, 
between  the  intellectual  principles  of  the  accomplished 
and  philosophic  lyceum-lecturer,  and  those  of  the  theo- 
logical preacher  holding  forth  on  the  same  theme,  from 
the  same  desk,  to  the  same  audience,  springs  in  the  eyes 
of  all.  The  contradiction  between  Theology  and  the 
other  Sciences  is  seen  and  understood  by  a  large  class 
of  intelligent  men ;  it  is  felt,  but  not  understood,  by  a 
much  larger  class,  men  of  genuine  piety  who  reproach 
themselves  because  they  doubt  the  miracles  of  the  Bible 
and  fail  to  relish  the  eternal  damnation  of  men,  or  be- 
cause they  take  so  little  interest  in  the  dull  routine  of 
what  in  the  churches  is  called  religion.  With  the  wide 
spread  of  a  very  superficial  intellectual  culture,  and 
with  the  immense  intellectual  activity  brought  out  by 
the  political  institutions  and  the  industrial  movements 
of  the  country,  a  great  amount  of  doubt  on  theological 
matters  has  also  been  developed.  Sometimes  it  is  pub- 
He,  oftener  it  is  secret.  But  it  is  plain  that  the  contra- 
diction between  the  Theology  of  the  churches  and  the 
Science,  the  Literature,  the  Philanthropy,  and  the  Piety 
of  the  age,  is  very  widely  felt  and  pretty  widely  under- 
stood. 

F 


Lxii  INTRODUCTION. 

Clergymen  endeavor  to  solve  this  contradiction  in 
two  ways.  Men  of  one  party  attempt  to  put  man 
down  and  bring  him  back  to  the  old  Theology.  They 
deride  new  Piety ;  they  rail  at  new  Philanthropy ;  they 
decry  Science ;  and  at  each  new-comer  in  Theology 
who  puts  his  yeasty  wine  into  the  old  bottles  of  the 
Church,  or,  still  worse,  into  others  of  a  newer  make  and 
pattern,  they  call  out  "  Infidel !  Atheist !  Away  with 
him  !  "  But  they  have  no  physical  force  at  their  com- 
mand as  in  continental  Europe.  It  is  almost  three 
hundred  years  since  Calvin  burnt  Unitarian  Servetus 
alive  at  the  stake,  where  now  a  Unitarian  college 
teaches  the  obnoxious  opinion.  Quakers  and  Bap- 
tists are  never  disturbed  in  Boston  which  once  shed 
the  blood  of  the  founders  of  these  earnest  and  impor- 
tant sects. 

The  other  party,  scanty  in  numbers,  endeavors  to 
bring  Theology  up  to  the  level  of  the  science  of  the 
times,  and  to  engage  the  churches  in  new  piety  and 
new  philanthropy. 

The  retrogressive  and  the  progressive  party  are  both 
needed ;  and  have  valuable  functions  to  perform. 
There  is  always  danger  that  some  good  things  should 
be  left  behind ;  and  not  only  feeble  and  timid  persons, 
but  warworn  veterans  also,  are  therefore  properly  put  in 
the  rear  of  the  human  army  marching  to  the  promised 
land ;  else  baggage  might  be  abandoned,  and  even 
stragglers  lost.  The  Christians  left  good  things  behind 
in  the  Hebrew  and  Heathen  cities  they  marched  out  of, 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixiii 

or  passed  through ;  they  must  send  back  and  bring 
away  all  those  things.  The  Protestants  rejected  much 
that  was  excellent,  perhaps  indispensable  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind  ;  so  pious  men  and  women  must  go  over  to 
the  Latin  Church  and  reclaim  it. 

How  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  with  its  many  de- 
nominations, performing  its  theological  and  religious 
function  ?  Certainly  not  very  well.  As  a  whole  it  re- 
bukes no  great  popular  Sins  ;  it  corrects  no  great  popu- 
lar Mistakes  and  Errors.  The  Churches  of  England 
and  America  do  not  rebuke  the  actual  evils  of  these 
two  nations ;  they  preach  mainly  against  small  vices 
which  the  controlling  classes  of  the  people  have  little 
temptation  to  commit.  In  England  and  America,  the 
strong  often  exploiter  the  weak,  consciously,  or  igno- 
rantly.  The  Anglo-Saxon, —  whether  Briton  or  Ameri- 
can, —  has  a  most  inordinate  lust  for  land :  he  wishes 
to  annex  the  universe  to  his  estate.  How  has  England 
pillaged  India ;  how  has  America  plundered  Mexico, 
and  now  goes  " fillibustering "  towards  Cuba!  The 
commercial  policy  of  Christian  England  is  quite  as 
selfish,  and  almost  as  cruel,  as  the  military  policy  of 
Heathen  Rome  —  abroad  it  aims  to  impoverish  other 
countries,  ruin  their  manufactures,  and  cripple  their 
commerce,  in  order  to  heap  up  enormous  riches  in 
England  ;  at  home  it  aims  to  concentrate  great  wealth, 
and  its  consequent  power,  in  the  hands  of  a  few  strong 
men  who  shall  exploiter  the  mass  of  the  people.  The 
policy  of  America  is  to  keep  one  seventh  part  of  the 


Ixiv  INTRODUCTION. 

population  in  such  slavery  as  exists  nowhere  else  in 
Christendom ;  nay,  more,  the  Christian  "  Barbary  States 
of  America  "  cherish  the  slavery  which  the  Mahometan 
Barbary  States  of  Africa  have  cast  off  with  scorn  and 
loathing.  The  English  and  American  churches  do  not 
oppose  the  Sins,  but  encourage  them. 

In  the  ante- Christian  governments  the  State  and  the 
Church  were  identical,  the  national  religion  was  pre- 
scribed by  the  national  law  and  enforced  by  the  sword 
of  the  magistrate.  The  function  of  official  priests  was 
to  appease  the  wrath  of  God,  or  purchase  his  favor  ;  it 
was  not  to  develop  the  spirit  of  the  people.  In  Rome, 
such  was  the  eclectic  spirit  of  the  nation,  all  forms  of 
devotion  were  allowed  to  exist  along  with  the  national 
religion,  so  long  as  they  did  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
city.  But  when  Christianity  came,  affirming  the  unity 
of  God  and  the  falseness  of  all  antecedent,  or  other, 
forms  of  religion,  the  Roman  State,  in  preserving  its 
own  form  of  worship,  must  of  necessity  attempt  to  sup- 
press the  Christian  religion.  Christianity  grew  up  in 
opposition  to  the  magistrate.  So  there  were  at  the 
beginning  two  powers  in  the  nation  —  the  State,  the 
carnal  temporal  power ;  and  the  Church,  —  the  spiritual 
power  whose  kingdom  was  "  not  of  this  world."  When 
Christianity  became  a  "  lawful  religion,"  and  when  it 
became  the  national  religion,  there  still  continued  this 
division  between  the  State  and  Church ;  two  distinct 
organizations  were  established,  the  "  carnal "   and  the 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixv 

"  spiritual."  This  separation  of  the  civil  and  religious 
authorities  has  been  of  great  value  to  the  world.  In 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  Church  was  one  established 
power,  and  the  State  another,  each  independent.  The 
Chiu-ch  was  a  critic  and  check  upon  the  State,  the  State 
upon  the  Church.  Ecclesiastical  conformity  was  often 
political  dissent.  The  government  of  Christendom  was 
monarchic ;  but  the  monarchy  was  two-headed.  The 
practical  effect  of  this  was  important,  in  many  respects, 
to  mankind.  But  in  the  Roman  States,  and  in  all 
countries  which  owed  exclusive  civil  obedience  to  the 
Pope  the  Church  swallowed  up  the  State  ;  the  "  spirit- 
ual "  became  also  the  "  carnal "  power,  and  the  people 
were  ruled  with  terrible  oppression.  The  same  result 
took  place  when  the  "  carnal "  became  the  "  religious  " 
power,  as  it  sometimes  did.  In  both  of  these  cases  the 
monarchy  became  single-headed ;  the  State  and  the 
Church  were  merged  into  one ;  there  was  no  city  of 
refuge  for  the  victim  of  the  magistrate,  or  of  the  priest, 
to  fly  to.  K  he  ran  from  the  king's  axe,  he  feU  over  the 
Pope's  fagot.  Thus  was  he  overtaken  by  one  or  the 
other  horn  of  the  tyrannical  dilemma,  and  if  he  escaped 
beheading  he  was  sure  to  be  burned.  In  countries 
where  this  division  of  powers  was  recognized,  the  man 
fled  from  the  court  house  to  the  temple,  or  from  the 
temple  to  the  court  house,  and  humanity  had  a  fairer 
opportunity  to  obtain  justice. 

But  when   the   scholastic   philosophers,  after   strug- 
gling for  centuries,  had  failed  to  reconcile  the  conscious- 


Ixvi  INTRODUCTION. 

ness  of  mankind  with  the  dogmas  of  the  Church ;  when 
the  Church  itself  became  corrupt  in  head  and  members, 
and  the  Priests  of  Christendom  were  more  tyrannical 
and  shameless  than  the  magistrates  of  Heathendom, 
then  human  consciousness  broke  with  the  Roman 
Church.  But  the  people,  long  accustomed  to  passive 
submission  under  the  State  and  Church,  gained  ap- 
parently little  by  the  change.  The  kings,  or  other  civil 
magistrates,  took  possession  of  the  spiritual  power 
which  in  Protestant  countries  had  been  wrested  from 
the  hands  of  the  Pope.  Thus  as  the  Church  grew 
weak  the  State  again  grew  strong,  and  assumed  the 
same  authority  in  matters  of  religion  which  had  for- 
merly been  claimed  by  the  Pope  in  Christian,  or  by  the 
king  in  Heathen  countries.  This  was  not  effected 
without  a  struggle.  In  some  countries  the  spiritual 
power,  in  carnal  hands,  became  absolute ;  in  others  it 
was  conditioned  by  a  constitution  ;  but  in  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Protestant  Europe  the  State  still  claims  eminent 
domain  over  the  Church,  prescribes  the  ritual,  and  es- 
tablishes the  Qreed.  Thus  in  Prussia  the  king  demands 
that  every  man  shall  be  a  soldier  and  a  church-member ; 
he  is  drilled  in  the  manual  exercise  and  the  catechism. 
Even  England  has  her  jiational  religion,  and  rejects 
with  scorn  from  her  two  wealthy  universities  aU  who 
cannot  subscribe  to  the  contradictory  formularies  of 
belief:  though  she  allows  dissent,  she  by  no  means  ad- 
mits the  dissenters  to  an  equality  with  the  disciples  of 
her  own  Church,  in  which  the  aristocratic  element  pre- 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixvii 

ponderates  over  the  popular  —  for  the  congregation  is 
only  of  "  dead-heads,"  which  have  no  voice  in  making 
the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  or  even  in  electing  its 
minister. 

In  this  way  the  Protestant  Church  of  Europe  has  lost 
one  of  its  most  valuable  functions  —  it  is  no  longer  a 
critic  on  the  State,  it  is  the  servant  and  creature  of  the 
State.  If  the  magistrates  are  corrupt,  the  laws  unjust 
and  oppressive,  the  clergy  dare  not  say  a  word  against 
the  iniquity.  The  Bench  of  Bishops  is  seldom  found 
to  be  more  humane  than  the  House  of  Lords  where  it 
sits ;  and  the  Protestant  Pulpit,  in  these  countries,  takes 
special  care  not  to  rebuke  any  popular  Error  or  Sin. 
So  the  established  Church  in  Protestant  countries  is 
commonly  found  siding  with  Government  and  not  with 
the  People :  it  attends  to  the  Form  —  the  ritual  and  the 
creed  —  not  to  the  Substance  of  Religion.  It  does  not 
demand  a  free  mind,  free  conscience,  free  affection,  and 
a  free  soul,  all  in  their  normal  mode  of  activity. 

In  America  there  is  no  State-religion  and  no  na- 
tional Church.  Each  denomination  determines  its 
creed  for  itself,  and  manages  its  own  affairs.  But  such 
is  the  dependence  of  the  preacher  on  his  parish  for 
pecuniary  support,  and  so  much  is  that  thought  to 
depend  on  servility  to  the  controlling  and  wealthy 
classes  of  society,  that  any  popular  wickedness  is  pretty 
sure  of  the  support  of  the  greater  part  of  the  American 
clergy.  This  is  eminently  the  case  in  the  great  towns 
—  the  seat  of  riches,  of  commercial  and  political  power. 


Ixviii  INTRODUCTION. 

The  minister  may  forget  his  God,  his  Conscience,  his 
Self-respect ;  he  must  not  attempt  to  correct  "  the  hand 
that  feeds  him."  Slavery,  the  great  sin  of  America,  has 
long  found  its  most  effectual  support  in  the  American 
Church.  The  powerful  denominations  are  on  its  side, 
the  Tract  Society  says  nothing  against  it ;  the  leaders 
of  the  sects,  with  the  rarest  exception,  are  in  favor  of 
this  wickedness.  When  prominent  political  men  deny 
that  there  is  any  law  of  God  to  overrule  the  most 
wicked  enactment  of  corrupt  politicians,  the  wealthy 
churches  say  "  Amen ! " 

In  England  the  churches  seem  no  better ;  they  can 
rebuke  American,  but  not  British  Sins,  as  the  American 
British  and  not  their  own.  In  the  military  age  the 
spiritual  and  carnal  powers  were  independent  of  each 
other,  and  mutual  checks ;  in  the  commercial  age  the 
Spiritual  depends  on  the  carnal  power  for  daily  bread, 
and  dares  not  offend  the  hand  that  feeds  it ;  forgetting 
the  Eye  which  "  seeth  not  as  man  seeth."  The  great 
theological  movement  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  great 
religious  movement,  is  not  carried  on  by  the  churches 
but  in  spite  of  them. 


To  sum  up  the  theological  and  religious  condition 
of  the  Protestant  countries  as  a  whole,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  there  is  a  great  contradiction  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  people ;  that  the  Popular  Theology  is 
at  variance  with  the  other  sciences,  and  is  fading  from 


INTRODUCTION.  IXIX' 

the  respect  of  the  people.  A  great  intellectual  move- 
ment goes  on,  a  great  moral,  philanthropic,  and  religious 
movement,  but  the  preachers  in  the  churches  do  little 
directly  either  to  diffuse  new  truths,  or  to  kindle  a 
deeper  sentiment  of  piety,  or  philanthropy.  The  Prot- 
estant Church,  counts  this  its  chief  function — to  ap- 
pease the  wrath  of  God  and  to  admininister  the  Scrip- 
tures to  men,  not  to  promote  piety  and  morality. 


Take  the  whole  Christian  Church  at  this  day  — 
where  is  the  vigor,  the  energy,  the  faith  in  God,  the 
love  for  man,  which  marked  the  lives  of  those  persons 
who  built  churches  with  their  lives  ?  Taken  as  a  whole, 
the  clergy  of  Christendom  oppose  the  foremost  science, 
justice,  philanthropy,  and  piety  of  the  age.  The  eccle- 
siastical institutions  seem  to  bear  the  same  relation  to 
mankind  now,  as  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the 
Hebrews  and  Heathens  two  thousand  years  ago.  Every 
year  the  Science  of  the  scholar  separates  him  further 
and  further  from  the  Theology  of  the  churches.  The 
once  united  Church  is  rent  into  three.  The  infallibility 
of  the  Roman  Church  —  who  believes  it?  the  Pope, 
the  superior  Catholic  clergy?  The  Infallibility  of  the 
Bible,  —  its  divine  origin,  its  miraculous  inspiration  — 
do  the  Scholars  of  Christendom  believe  that  in  defiance 
of  Mathematics,  Physics,  History,  and  Psychology  ? 
They  leave  it  to  the  clergy.  The  Trinity  is  shaken  ; 
men  lose  their  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  water-baptism, 


IXX  INTRODUCTION. 

and  other  artificial  sacraments,  to  save  the  souls  of 
men ;  miracles  disappear  from  the  belief  of  all  but  the 
clergy.  Do  they  believe  them  ?  The  Catholic  doubts 
the  mediaeval  miracles  of  his  own  Church ;  it  is  in  vain 
that  the  Virgin  Mary  reappears  in  Switzerland  and 
France ;  that  Saint  Januarius  annually  liquifies  his 
blood ;  that  statues  weep :  the  stomachs  of  reapers  re- 
fuse such  bread.  It  avails  nothing  to  threaten  scientific 
doubters  with  eternal  hell.  Superior  talent  forsakes  the 
Church,  —  even  in  Catholic  countries,  there  are  few 
clergymen  of  genius,  or  even  great  talent.  In  Protes- 
tant Germany  theological  genius  teaches  in  the  college, 
not  in  the  pulpit ;  and  with  new  science  destroys  the 
mediaeval  opinions  it  was  once  set  to  defend.  Will  the 
spirit  of  the  human  race  come  back  and  reanimate  the 
dry  bones  of  dead  Theology  ?  When  the  mummies  of 
jEgypt  shall  worship  again  their  half-forgotten  gods  — 
Osiris,  Orus,  Apis,  Isis ;  when  mankind  goes  back  to 
the  other  sciences  of  half-savage  life  the  Theology  of 
that  period  may  be  welcomed  again.     Not  till  then. 

Is  Religion  to  die  out  of  the  consciousness  of  man! 
Believe  it  not.  Even  the  protests  against  "  Chris- 
tianity "  are  oftenest  made  by  men  full  of  the  religious 
spirit.  Many  of  the  "  Unbelievers "  of  this  age  are 
eminent  for  their  religion ;  atheists  are  often  made  such 
by  circumstances.  Even  M.  Comte  must  have  a  New 
Supreme  —  Nouveau  Grand  Etre,  —  and  recommends 
daily  prayer  to  his  composite  and  progressive  deity ! 
There  was  never  a  time  w^hen   Christendom  was  so 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixxi 

pious  —  in  love  of  God  ;  so  philanthropic  —  in  love  of 
man ;  so  moral  —  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  God  ;  so 
intellectual  —  knowing  it  so  well ;  so  rich  —  possessing 
such  power  over  the  material  world.  Yet  through  lack 
of  a  true  Idea  of  God,  from  want  of  institutions  to 
teach  and  apply  the  Absolute  Religion  —  there  is  not 
that  conscious  and  total  religious  activity  which  is 
indispensable  for  the  healthy  and  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  mankind. 

What  need  there  is  of  a  new  religious  life !  The 
three  great  public  forces  of  the  leading  nations  of 
Christendom,  —  Business,  Politics,  and  the  Press,  ex- 
cite a  great  intellectual  activity.  Christendom  was 
never  so  thoughtful  as  now.  Shall  this  great  movement 
of  mind  be  unreligious,  without  consciousness  of  God? 
It  wiU  not  be  controlled  by  the  Theology  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  But  it  is  not  a  wicked  age.  What  phi- 
lanthropies are  there  new  born  in  our  time  ?  Catholic 
France  is  rich  in  the  literatm-e  of  charity,  shaming  the 
haughtiness  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church.  Yet  within 
not  many  years  at  what  great  cost  has  England  set 
free  almost  a  million  men  "  owned  "  as  slaves  !  Nay, 
Russian  Nicholas  emancipates  his  serfs.  Socialists 
seek  to  abolish  poverty,  and  all  the  curses  it  brings  on 
the  body  and  the  spirit  of  man.  Wise  men  begin  to 
see  that  the  majority  of  criminals  are  the  victims  of 
society  more  than  its  foes,  and  seek  to  abolish  the 
causes  of  crime ;  what  pains  are  taken  with  the  poor, 
the  crazy,  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb ;  nay, 


Ixxiv  INTRODUCTION. 

her  natural  place ;  political  corruption  to  be  buried  in 
its  grave.  Pauperism  is  to  end,  war  to  cease,  and  the 
insane  lust  of  our  times  for  gold  and  pleasure  is  to  be 
tamed  and  corrected.  This  can  be  done  only  by  a  deep 
religious  life  in  the  heart  of  the  people.  All  great  civil- 
izations begin  with  God. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  to  look  at  the  noble  and  large- 
minded  men  who  in  this  century  have  become  disgusted 
with  the  Popular  Theology,  and  so  have  turned  off 
from  all  Conscious  Religion.  In  a  better  age  they 
would  have  been  leaders  of  the  world's  piety.  It  is 
for  men  who  have  sought  to  cut  loose  from  every  false 
tradition,  to  worship  the  Infinite  Father  and  Infinite 
Mother!  They  may  scold,  and  are  then  the  Church 
termagant,  worth  nothing  but  their  criticism.  They 
may  toil  to  remove  these  evils,  their  life  making  a  new 
Church,  and  then  they  are  the  Church  beneficent ;  their 
influence  will  go  into  the  world's  life,  and  hasten  the 
development  of  mankind. 

How  much  does  all  Christendom  need  a  new  Form 
of  Religion,  to  reconcile  the  understanding,  to  bring  the 
conscience,  and  the  heart,  and  the  soul,  to  the  great 
work  of  life  !  Then  if  men  are  faithful,  when  eighteen 
hundred  other  years  have  passed  by,  they  will  have 
produced  an  influence  in  the  world's  history  like  that  of 
the  great  Christian  apostle,  who  went  to  the  Gentiles 
so  poor  and  so  obscure  that  no  man  knows  of  his 
whereabouts,  or  his  whence,  or  his  whither.  Now,  as 
of  old,  "  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things  of  the  world 


INTKODUCTION.  Ixxv 

to  confound  the  mighty,"  and  the  trae  to  confound  the 
false.  There  is  no  reason  to  fear.  The  Infinite  God  is 
perfect  Cause  and  perfect  Providence  ;  He  made  the 
universe  from  a  perfect  motive,  of  perfect  materials,  for 
a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto.  Shall 
He  fail  of  his  intentions  ?  Man  marches  forth  to  fresh 
triumphs  in  Religion  as  in  Philosophy  and  Art.  What 
is  gained  once  is  gained  for  all  time,  and  for  eternity. 
Hebraism,  Heathenism,  Christianism  are  places  where 
Man  halted  in  his  march  towards  the  Promised  Land, 
encampments  on  his  pUgrimage.  He  rests  awhile  ; 
then  God  says  to  him,  "  long  enough  hast  thou  com- 
passed this  Mountain ;  turn  and  take  thy  journey  for- 
ward. Lo !  the  Land  of  Promise  is  stiU  before  thee." 
In  the  anarchy  of  this  age  are  we  taught  to  feel, 

"  That  man's  heart  is  a  holy  thing, 

And  Nature,  through  a  world  of  death, 
Breathes  into  him  a  second  breath, 
More  searching  than  the  breath  of  spring." 


SERMON  I. 

OF    ATHEISM    AS    THEORY. 


(1) 


PSALM  XIV.  1. 

THE   FOOL   HATH   SAID   IN  HIS   HEART,   THERE   IS   NO   GOD. 
(2) 


OF    SPECULATIVE    ATHEISM  REGARDED   AS   A 
THEORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


On  this  and  several  following  Sundays  I  propose  to 
speak  of  Atheism,  of  the  Popular  Theology,  and  of 
pure  Theism :  of  each  first  as  a  Theory  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  then  as  a  Principle  of  practical  life  ;  first  as 
speculative  Philosophy,  then  as  practical  Ethics 

The  Idea  which  a  man  forms  of  God  is  always  the 
most  important  element  in  his  speculative  theory  of  the 
universe,  and  in  his  particular,  practical  plan  of  action 
for  the  church,  the  state,  the  community,  the  family, 
and  his  own  individual  life.  You  see  to-day  the  vast 
influence  of  the  popular  idea  of  God.  All  the  great 
historical  civilizations  of  the  race  have  grown  out  of 
the  national  idea  which  was  formed  of  God,  or  have 
been  intimately  connected  with  it.  The  popular  The- 
ology, which  at  first  is  only  an  abstract  idea  in  the  heads 
of  the  philosophers,  by  and  by  shows  itself  in  the  laws, 
the  navies,  the  forts,  and  the  jails ;  in  the  churches,  the 
ceremonies,  and  the  sacraments,  the  weddings,  the  bap- 
tisms, and  the  funerals ;  in  the  hospitals,  the  colleges, 
the  schools,  in  all  the  social  charities ;  in  the  relation  of 

(3) 


4  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

a  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child ;  in  the  daily- 
work  and  the  daily  prayer  of  each  man.  Thus,  what  at 
first  is  the  abstractest  of  thoughts,  by  and  by  becomes 
the  concretest  of  things.  If  a  man  concludes  there  is 
no  God  at  all,  that  conclusion,  negative  though  it  is, 
will  have  an  immense  influence  ;  subjectively  on  his 
feelings  and  opinions,  objectively  on  his  outward  con- 
duct; subjectively  as  the  theory  of  the  universe;  objec- 
tively as  the  principle  of  practical  life. 

Speculative  Theism  is  the  belief  in  the  existence  of 
God,  in  one  form  or  another ;  and  I  call  him  a  Theist 
who  believes  in  any  God.  By  Atheism  I  mean  abso- 
lute denial  of  the  existence  of  any  God.  A  man  may 
deny  actuality  to  the  Hebrew  idea  of  God,  to  the  Chris- 
tian idea  of  God,  or  to  the  Mahometan  idea  of  God, 
and  yet  be  no  atheist. 

The  Hebrews  formed  a  certain  conception  of  a  being 
with  many  good  qualities,  and  some  extraordinarily 
bad  qualities,  and  called  it  Jehovah,  and  said,  "  That  is 
God  :  it  is  the  only  God."  The  majority  of  Christians 
form  a  certain  conception  of  a  being  with  more  good 
qualities  than  are  ascribed  to  Jehovah,  but  with  some 
most  atrociously  evil  qualities,  and  call  it  Trinity,  or 
Unity,  and  say,  —  "  That  is  God  :  it  is  the  only  God." 

Now  a  man  may  deny  the  actuality  of  either  or 
both  these  ideas  of  God,  and  yet  be  no  atheist.  He 
may  do  so  because  he  is  more  of  a  theist  than  the  ma- 
jority of  Hebrews  or  Christians ;  because  he  has  a  higher 
development  of  the  religious  faculty,  and  has  thereby  ob- 
tained a  better  idea  of  God.  Thus  the  Old  Testament 
prophets,  with  a  religious  development  often  far  in  ad- 
vance of  their  Gentile  neighbors,  declared,  that  Baal 
was  no  God.     Of  course,  the  worshipper  of  Baal  called 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  O 

the  Hebrew  prophets  atheists,  for  they  denied  all  the 
God  that  Gentile  knew.  Paul,  in  the  New  Testament, 
more  of  a  theist  than  the  Greeks  and  Asiatics  about 
him,  with  a  larger  religious  development  than  they 
dreamed  of,  said,  — "  an  Idol  is  nothing."  That  is, 
there  is  no  divine  being  which  corresponds  exactly  to 
the  qualities  ascribed  to  any  material  idol.  Their  idea 
of  God,  said  Paul,  lacked  actuality ;  it  was  a  personal 
or  national  whimsey  ;  not  a  perfect  subjective  represen- 
tation of  the  objective  fact  of  the  universe  ;  but  only  a 
mistaken  notion  of  that  fact. 

K  a  man  has  outgrown  the  Hebrew,  or  common 
Christian  idea  of  God,  he  may  say  what  Paul  said  of 
the  Idol,  —  "  It  is  nothing."  He  will  not  be  an  atheist, 
but  a  theist  all  the  more.  The  superior  conception  of 
God  always  nullifies  the  inferior  conception. 

Thus  as  the  world  grows  in  its  development,  it  neces- 
sarily outgrows  its  ancient  ideas  of  God,  which  were 
only  temporary  and  provisional.  As  it  goes  forward, 
the  ancient  deities  are  looked  on  first  as  devils ;  next  as 
a  mere  mistaken  notion  which  some  men  had  formed 
about  God.  For  example,  a  hundred  years  ago  it  was 
the  custom  of  the  learned  men  of  the  Christian  church 
to  speak  of  the  Heathen  deities,  —  Jupiter,  ApoUo,  Ve- 
nus, and  the  rest,  —  as  Devils.  They  did  not  deny  the 
actual  existence  of  those  beings,  only  affirmed  them  to 
be  not  Gods  but  devils  or  "  faUen  angels ;  "  at  any  rate, 
evil  beings.  Some  of  the  heretics  among  the  early 
Christians  said  the  same  of  the  Hebrew  Jehovah,  that 
he  was  not  the  true  G«d,  but  only  a  Devil  who  misled 
the  Jews.  Now-a-days  weU  educated  men  who  still 
use  the  terms,  say  that  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Venus,  and  the 
others,  were  only  mistaken  notions  which  men  formed 
of  God.     They  deny  the  actuality  of  the  idea  ;  "  Jupi- 


6  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

ter  is  nothing."  A  man  who  has  a  higher  conception 
of  God  than  those  about  him,  who  denies  their  concep- 
tion, is  often  called  an  atheist  by  men  who  are  less  the- 
istic  than  he.  Thus  the  Christians,  who  said  the  Hea- 
then idols  were  no  gods,  were  accounted  atheists  by  the 
people,  and  accordingly  put  to  death.  Thus  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  accused  of  blasphemy,  and  crucified  by 
men  who  had  not  a  tithe  of  the  religious  development 
and  reverence  for  God  which  he  possessed.  The  men 
who  centuries  ago  denied  the  actuality  of  the  Trinity, 
were  put  to  death  as  atheists, —  Servetus  among  the 
rest,  John  Calvin  himself  tending  the  flames. 

At  this  day  the  Devil  is  a  part  of  the  popular  God- 
head in  the  common  theology,  representing  the  malig- 
nant element  which  still  belongs  to  the  ecclesiastical 
conception  of  Deity.  If  a  man  says  there  is  no  devil, 
he  is  thought  to  be,  if  not  an  atheist,  at  least  very 
closely  related  to  an  atheist.  He  denies  a  portion  of 
the  popular  Godhead ;  is  constructively  an  atheist ;  an 
atheist  as  far  as  he  goes ;  atheistic  in  kind,  as  much  as 
if  he  denied  the  whole  Godhead,  when  he  would  obvi- 
ously be  branded  an  atheist. 

I  use  the  word  Atheism  in  quite  a  different  sense. 
It  is  the  absolute  denial  of  any  and  all  forms  of  God ; 
the  denial  of  the  Genus  ;  the  denial  of  all  possible  ideas 
of  God,  —  highest  as  well  as  lowest. 

At  this  day  there  are  some  philosophers,  quite  eminent 
men  too,  who  call  themselves  atheists,  and  in  set  terms, 
deny  the  actuality  of  any  possible  idea  of  God.  They 
say  the  idea  of  God  is  a  mere  whimsey  of  men,  and 
God  is  not  a  fact  of  the  univers^.  Man  has  a  notion 
of  God,  as  of  a  ghost,  or  devil ;  but  it  is  a  pure  sub- 
jective fancy,  —  something  which  he  has  spun  out  of 
his  own  brain,  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  universe  to 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  7 

correspond  thereto.  Man  has  an  Idea  of  God,  but  the 
universe  has  no  Fact  of  God. 

These  men  do  not  mean  to  scoff  at  others.  They 
teach  their  doctrines  with  the  cahnness  and  precision 
of  philosophy,  and  affirm  atheism  as  their  Theory  of  the 
Universe.  It  is  a  conclusion  they  have  deliberately 
arrived  at.  They  are  not  ashamed  of  it ;  they  do  not 
conceal  it ;  do  not  ostentatiously  set  it  forth. 

I  am  doing  these  men  no  injustice  in  giving  them  this 
name,  because  they  claim  the  style  and  title  of  atheists, 
and  professedly  teach  atheism.  They  are  not  always 
bigoted  atheists,  but  sometimes  philosophical.  A  few 
of  them  are  in  this  country,  founding  schools  and  sects 
of  their  way  of  thinking.  Some  of  them  are  men  of 
quite  superior  ability,  men  of  very  large  intellectual  cul- 
ture. They  seem  to  be  truth-loving  and  sincere  per- 
sons; conscientious,  just,  humane,  philanthropic,  and 
modest  men  aiming  to  be  faithful  to  their  nature,  their 
whole  nature.  They  are  commonly  on  the  side  of  man, 
as  opposed  to  the  enemies  of  man;  on  the  side  of  the 
people,  as  against  a  tyrant :  they  are  or  mean  to  be,  on 
the  side  of  truth,  of  justice,  and  of  love.  I  shall  not 
throw  stones  at  these  men;  I  shall  devise  no  hard 
names  against  them :  they  will  get  abuse  enough  with- 
out my  giving  them  any  at  all.  I  feel  great  tenderness 
towards  them,  and  very  great  compassion,  —  which  I 
suppose  they  would  not  thank  me  for.  Some  of  them 
I  know  personally ;  others  by  their  reputation ;  some 
by  their  writings.  I  think  they  are  much  higher  in  their 
moral  and  reli^ous  growth  than  a  great  many  men 
who  are  always  saying  to  God,  —  "I  go,  sir,"  —  and 
yet  never  stir.  These  are  men  who  have  made  sacri- 
fices even,  to  be  faithful ;  and,  without  knowing  it,  they 
have  a  good  deal  of  practical  religiousness  of  character, 


8  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

both  in  its  subjective  form  of  Piety,  and  in  its  objective 
form  of  personal  and  social  Morality. 

I  do  not  believe  that  such  men  are  real  atheists, 
though  they  think  themselves  so ;  and  I  only  call  them 
so  to  distinguish  their  doctrines,  and  because  they  them- 
selves assume  the  name.  I  think  the  philosophical 
atheist  lacks  actuality  as  much  as  a  devil  or  a  ghost. 

The  Bible  says,  "  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart, 
There  is  no  God."  If  the  Fool  says  so,  I  shall  believe 
the  fool  thinks  so ;  and  if  the  fool  holds  up  his  five 
fingers  and  says  "  There  is  no  hand,"  I  shall  believe  the 
fool  thinks  so.  But  when  a  Philosopher  says  there  is 
no  God,  I  do  not  believe  he  thinks  so,  only  that  he 
thinks  he  thinks  so.  A  man  may  sometimes  think  he 
sees  a  thing  when  he  does  not  see  it ;  and  so  a  man 
may  think  he  thinks  a  thing  when  he  does  not  think  it. 
A  philosophical  and  consistent  atheist  is  as  much  an 
impossibility,  I  think,  as  a  mathematician  who  cannot 
count  two ;  or  as  a  round  square,  or  a  three-cornered 
circle.  I  shall  never  believe  that  a  sane  man  who  can 
understand  the  multiplication  table  is  an  atheist,  though 
he  may  call  himself  so.  But  inasmuch  as  atheism  is 
set  up  as  a  theory  of  the  universe,  let  us  look  at  it,  and 
see  what  real  Speculative  Atheism  is.  That  is  the  first 
thing. 


There  is  a  mere  formal  atheism,  which  is  a  denial  of 
God  in  terms.  A  man  says.  There  is  no  God ;  no  God 
that  is  self-originated,  who  is  the  Cause  of  existence, 
who  is  the  Mind  and  the  Providence  of  the  universe: 
and  so  the  order,  beauty,  and  harmony  of  the  world  of 
matter  or  mind  does  not  indicate  any  plan  or  purpose  of 
Deity.     But,  he  says,  Nature, —  meaning  by  that  the 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  \f 

whole  sum  total  of  existence, — is  powerful,  wise,  and 
good ;  Nature  is  self-originated,  the  Cause  of  its  own 
existence,  the  mind  of  the  universe,  and  the  Provi- 
dence thereof.  There  is  obviously  a  plan  and  purpose, 
says  he,  whereby  order,  beauty,  and  harmony  are 
brought  to  pass ;  but  all  that  is  the  plan  and  purpose 
of  Nature. 

%  Very  well.  In  such  cases  the  absolute  denial  of  God 
is  only  formal,  but  not  real.  The  Quahty  of  God  is 
still  admitted,  and  affirmed  to  be  real ;  only  the  repre- 
sentative of  that  quality  is  called  Nature,  and  not 
called  God.  That  is  only  a  change  of  name.  The 
question  is  this,  —  "Are  there  such  Qualities  in  ex- 
istence as  we  call  God  ?  "  It  is  not,  —  "  How  shall  we 
name  the  qualities?"  One  man  may  call  the  sum 
total  of  these  qualities  Nature,  another  Heaven,  a  third 
Universe,  a  fourth  Matter,  a  fifth  Spirit,  a  sixth  Geist, 
a  seventh  God,  an  eighth  Theos,  a  ninth  Allah,  or  what 
he  pleases.  Spinoza  may  call  God  Natura  naturans, 
and  the  rest  of  the  universe  Natura  naturata ;  Berosus 
may  call  God  El^  and  the  rest  of  the  Universe  Thebal, 
They  all  admit  the  existence  of  the  thing  so  diversely 
entitled.  The  name  is  of  the  smallest  consequence. 
All  those  men  that  I  know,  who  caU  themselves  athe- 
ists, really  admit  the  actual  existence  of  the  qualities  I 
speak  of. 

Real  Atheism  is  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  any 
God ;  a  denial  of  the  Genus  God,  of  the  actuality  of  all 
possible  ideas  of  God.  It  denies  that  there  is  any 
Mind,  or  Being,  which  is  the  Cause  and  Providence  of 
the  universe,  and  which  intentionally  produces  the  order, 
beauty,  and  harmony  thereof  with  the  constant  modes 
of  operation  therein.  To  be  consistent,  it  ought  to  go 
a  step  further,  and  deny  that  there  is   any  law,  order, 


10  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

or  harmony  in  existence,  or  any  constant  modes  of 
operation  in  the  world.  The  real  Speculative  Athe- 
ist denies  the  existence  of  the  qualities  of  God ;  denies 
that  there  is  any  Mind  of  the  universe,  any  self-con- 
scious Providence,  any  Providence  at  all.  If  he  follows 
out  his  principle  he  must  deny  the  actuality  of  the  In- 
finite, deny  that  there  is  any  Being  or  Cause  of  finite 
things  which  is  self-consciously  powerful,  wise,  just, 
loving,  and  self-faithful.  To  him  there  are  only  finite 
things,  —  each  self-originated,  self-sustained,  self-di- 
rected, —  and  no  more ;  the  universe,  comprising  the 
world  of  matter,  and  the  world  of  mind,  is  a  finite 
whole,  made  up  of  finite  parts ;  each  part  is  imperfect, 
the  whole  incomplete;  the  finite  has  no  Infinite  to 
depend  on  as  its  Ground  and  Cause ;  there  is  no  plan 
in  the  universe  or  any  part  thereof. 


Now  see  the  subjective  Efiect  of  this  Theory.  By 
subjective,  I  mean  the  effect  it  produces  on  the  senti- 
ments and  opinions  within  me. 

I.  Look  at  it  first  as  a  Theory  of  the  World  of 
Matter. 

In  respect  to  the  Origin  of  matter,  both  theist  and 
atheist  labor  under  the  same  difficulty:  neither  knows 
any  thing  about  that.  I  know  men,  chiefly  theologians, 
pretend  to  understand  all  about  the  creation  of  matter 
originally  ;  and  to  hear  them  talk  you  would  suppose  it 
was  as  easy  to  comprehend  how  "  God  made  a  world  out 
of  nothing,"  as  it  is  to  understand  how  a  tailor  makes 
a  coat  out  of  broadcloth  or  velvet.  But  if  a  man  looks 
with  a  philosophical  eye,  he  sees  this  is  an  extraordi- 
narily difficult  thing.     The  philosophical  theist  admits 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  11 

the  existence  of  the  universe,  and  the  atheist  does  the 
same  ;  but  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  neither 
atheist  nor  theist  knows  the  mode  of  origination.  You 
may  go  back  a  good  ways  and  study  the  formation  of 
an  egg,  a  fish,  seed,  tree,  or  rock,  or  the  solar  system 
after  the  fashion  of  La  Place ;  but  the  manner  of  origi- 
nating matter,  out  of  which  the  egg,  fish,  seed,  tree,  rock, 
and  solar  system  are  made,  is  just  as  far  off  as  ever ; 
and  it  seems  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  faculties  of 
man.  I  will  not  say  that  it  is  so,  only,  in  the  present 
stage  of  man's  development  and  scientific  acquirements, 
it  seems  so.  The  origin  of  Body,  —  of  any  specific 
form  of  matter, — may  be  made  out,  but  the  origin  of 
Matter,  the  primitive,  universal  substance  whence  Body 
comes,  still  eludes  our  search.  I  know  that  ecclesias- 
tical theists  often  call  the  philosophical  atheist  very  hard 
names  because  he  denies  that  we  can  understand  this 
process  at  present ;  the  charge  is  gratuitous. 

But  the  real  speculative  atheist  must  declare  that 
Matter,  the  general  substance  whereof  Body  is  made,  is 
eternal  but  without  thought,  or  will ;  and  the  specific 
forms  of  existence,  —  of  egg,  fish,  seed,  tree,  rock,  and 
solar  system,  —  all  came  with  no  forethought  preceding 
them ;  came  "  by  chance  ; "  that  is  to  say,  by  the  "  for- 
tuitous concourse  of  atoms  "  which  has  no  thought  or 
will,  and  that  they  indicate  no  mind,  no  plan,  no  pur- 
pose, no  providence.  That  is  the  atheistic  theory  of  the 
universe ;  compare  it  with  facts. 

I  See  how  this  scheme  works  on  a  great  scale  in  the 
material  world.  The  solar  system  has  a  sun  and  nu- 
merous planets ;  they  are  all  distributed  in  a  certain 
ratio  of  distance ;  they  move  round  the  sun  with  a  cer- 
tain velocity,  always  exactly  proportionate  to  their  dis- 


12  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

tance  from  the  sun ;  this  holds  good  with  regard  to  the 
nearest  and  the  furthest.  They  move  in  paths  of  the 
same  form  ;  they  are  ruled  by  the  same  laws  of  motion  ; 
they  receive  and  emit  light  in  the  same  way.  The 
laws,  which  are  the  constant  modes  of  planetary  opera- 
tion, when  we  come  to  study  them,  are  found  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly intricate  ;  yet  they  are  uniform,  and  the  same 
for  one  planet  as  for  another ;  the  same  for  a  satellite 
as  for  a  planet.  They  are  perfectly  kept,  and  so  uni- 
form in  action  that  if  you  go  back  to  the  time  of 
Thales,  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  you  can  cal- 
culate the  eclipse  of  the  moon,  and  find  that  it  took 
place  exactly  as  the  historians  of  that  day  relate ;  or 
you  may  go  forward  five  days,  or  five  years,  or  five 
thousand  years,  and  calculate  with  the  same  precision. 
So  accurate  are  these  laws,  that  an  astronomer  study- 
ing the  perturbations  of  a  remote  planet,  the  phenomena 
of  its  economy  not  accounted  for  by  the  attraction  of 
bodies  known  to  be  in  existence,  conjectures  the  exist- 
ence of  some  other  planet  which  causes  the  phenomena 
not  accounted  for.  Nay,  by  mathematical  science  he 
determines  its  place  and  size,  inferring  the  fact  of  a 
new  planet  outside  of  the  uttermost  ring  of  the  solar 
system ;  at  a  certain  minute  he  turns  his  telescope  to 
the  calculated  spot,  and,  for  the  first  time,  the  star  of 
Leverrier  springs  before  the  eye  of  conscious  man  ! 

Now  the  atheist  must  declare  that  all  this  order  of 
the  solar  system,  was  brought  about  by  the  fortuitous 
concourse  of  atoms,  and  indicates  no  mind,  plan,  or 
purpose  in  the  universe.  This  is  absurd.  A  man 
might  as  well  deny  the  fact  of  the  law  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem, or  the  existence  of  the  sun,  or  of  himself,  as  to  deny 
that  these  facts,  thus  coordinated,  indicate  a  mind,  de- 
note a  plan,  and  serve  a  purpose  calculated  beforehand. 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  13 

See  the  same  thing  on  a  smaller  scale.  The  compo- 
sition of  the  air  is  such  that  first  it  helps  light  and 
warm  the  earth  ;  is  a  swaddling  garment  to  keep  in  the 
specific  heat  of  the  earth,  and  prevent  it  from  radiating 
off  into  the  cold,  void  spaces  of  the  universe.  Next, 
by  its  free  circulation  as  wind,  it  helps  cleanse  and  pu- 
rify the  earth.  Then,  it  promotes  vegetation;  carries 
water  from  the  Tropics  to  the  Norwegian  pine,  fur- 
nishes much  of  the  food  of  plants,  their  means  of  life. 
Next,  it  helps  animal  life,  is  the  vehicle  of  respiration  : 
all  plants  which  grow,  all  things  that  breathe,  continu- 
ally suck  the  breasts  of  heaven.  Again,  it  is  a  most 
important  instrument  for  the  service  of  man ;  through 
this  we  communicate  by  artificial  light  and  artificial 
sound.  Without  it  all  were  motionless  and  dumb; 
not  a  bird  could  sing  or  fly,  not  a  cricket  creak  to  his 
partner  at  night,  not  a  man  utter  a  word  ;  and  a  voice- 
less ocean  would  ebb  ajid  flow  upon  a  silent  shore. 
The  thought-mill  would  be  as  idle  as  the  windmill. 
Man  kindles  his  fire  by  the  air ;  it  moves  his  ship, 
winnows  his  corn,  fans  his  temples,  carries  his  bal- 
loon. 

Now  the  air  is  capable  of  these,  and  a  great  many 
other  functions  in  virtue  of  its  peculiar  composition,  — 
so  much  nitrogen,  so  much  oxygen.  No  other  combi- 
nation of  elements  could  ever  have  accomplished  this. 
Vary  the  composition,  have  a  little  more  nitrogen  or 
oxygen,  and  you  alter  its  powers  as  a  vehicle  of  radia- 
tion, evaporation,  vegetation,  purification,  respiration, 
communication,  and  combustion.  The  atheist  must 
believe  that  this  composition  is  not  the  result  of  any 
mind,  that  it  serves  no  plan  and  purpose,  and  came  by 
the  fortuitous  concourse  of  matter  ;  no  more  ;  that  it  is 
aU  chance. 


14  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

If  I  should  say  that  this  sermon  came  by  the  fortui- 
tous concourse  of  matter,  that  last  Monday  I  shut  up 
pen,  ink,  and  paper  in  a  drawer,  and  to-day  went  and 
found  there  a  sermon,  which  had  come  by  the  fortuitous 
concourse  of  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  —  every  man  would 
think  I  was  very  absurd.  And  yet  I  should  not  com- 
mit so  great  a  quantity  of  absurdity  as  if  I  were  to  say 
"  the  composition  of  air  came  by  the  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms  ; "  for  it  takes  a  much  greater  mind  to 
bring  together  and  compose  the  air  which  fills  a  thimble 
than  to  produce  all  the  sermons,  yea,  hterature,  in  the 
world. 

If  the  atheist  says  there  is  mind  in  matter  which  ar- 
ranges the  planets,  controls  their  distances,  their  revo- 
lutions, their  constant  modes  of  operation,  that  this 
mind  in  matter  arranges  the  elements  in  the  air  so  as 
to  perform  all  the  functions  which  I  have  named,  and 
many  more,  —  then  he  is  false  to  his  atheism,  and  be- 
comes a  theist;  for  he  no  longer  denies  the  Qualities  of 
God,  but  only  calls  them  by  a  different  name. 

With  atheism  as  the  theory  of  the  universe,  the  world 
ought  to  be  a  jumble  of  parts  with  no  contexture  ;  for 
the  moment  you  admit  the  existence  of  order  in  the 
very  least  form,  a  constant  mode  of  operation  on  the 
very  smallest  scale,  —  why,  you  must  admit  the  exist- 
ence of  the  mind  which  devised  the  order  and  the 
mode  of  operation;  and  if  you  call  the  mind  Geist^ 
or,  God,  or  Nature,  or  Jehovah,  it  makes  small  odds  : 
the  question  is  not  about  the  name,  but  about  the 
fact. 

Now  the  world  is  nowhere  a  jumble.  Things  are 
not  "  huddled  and  lumped  together  "  in  the  composition 
of  the  eyeball  of  the  emmet,  or  of  the  solar  system. 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  15 

Every  part  of  the  universe  is  an  argument  against  athe- 
ism as  a  theory  thereof. 

11.  Look  next  at  atheism  as  the  Theory  of  Individ- 
ual Human  Life.  According  to  the  atheistic  scheme 
there  is  no  Conscious  Power  which  is  the  Cause  of 
me  and  of  my  life,  which  is  the  Providence  thereof ;  no 
Mind  which  arranges  the  world  in  reference  to  me,  or 
me  in  reference  to  the  world.  Does  that  conclusion 
satisfy  the  instinctive  desires  of  human  nature,  any 
better  than  it  accounts  for  the  facts  of  material  na- 
ture ? 

Look  at  human  life  from  this  point  of  view.  I  see 
but  little  ways  behind,  around,  or  before  me ;  and  yet, 
in  aU  directions,  my  power  of  knowledge  is  greater 
than  my  power  of  work.  I  know  httle  of  the  conse- 
quences which  will  follow  from  my  action.  I  invent  an 
alphabet ;  I  organize  the  elements  into  gunpowder,  the 
printing-press,  the  steam-engine,  or  men  into  a  repre- 
sentative form  of  government,  with  a  written  constitu- 
tion. I  know  very  little  of  the  effect  which  these  vast 
forces  will  produce  in  the  world  of  man.  I  know  that 
the  steam-engine  will  turn  my  mill,  that  the  printing- 
press  will  print  my  newspaper,  that  gunpowder  will  ex- 
plode at  the  touch  of  fire  ;  but  I  do  not  know  the  effect 
which  these  organizations,  newly  introduced  to  the 
world,  are  to  have  on  the  families,  the  communities,  the 
churches,  the  states  of  mankind,  and  on  the  general 
development  of  the  human  race. 

The  atheist  says  there  is  nothing  which  knows  any 
better,  or  which  knows  any  more  about  it ;  nothing 
which  uses  these  inventions  as  forces  for  the  advance- 
ment of  any  purpose.  "  The  universe,"  says  he,  "  has 
no  self-conscious  mind  except  the  mind  of  man,  and 


16  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

he  is  only  *  darkly  wise  and  meanly  great'  Nothing  in 
the  world,"  says  our  atheist,  "  knows  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth.  The  universe  is  drifting  in  the  void  inane, 
and  knows  nothing  of  its  whence,  its  whither,  or  its 
whereabouts.  Man  is  drifting  in  the  universe,  and 
knows  little  of  his  whereabouts,  nothing  of  his  whence 
or  whither.  There  is  no  mind,  no  providence,  no  power, 
which  knows  any  better;  nothing  which  guides  and 
directs  man  in  his  drifting,  or  the  universe  in  the  wide 
weltering  waste  of  time.  Nothing  is  laid  up  for  to- 
morrow.    My  life  also  tends  to  nothing." 

I  am  joyful :  joy  is  very  well,  but  nothing  comes  of  it. 
I  am  sorrowful,  and  suffer :  this  is  hard,  but  it  is  no  part 
of  a  plan  which  is  to  lead  to  something  further.  And 
when  my  manhood  falls  away,  and  my  body  dissolves, 
all  that  is  to  lead  to  nothing  better.  My  baby-teeth  fall 
out,  giving  way  to  my  man-teeth,  but  that  is  all  chance 
indicating  no  forethought  of  a  mind  which  provided  for 
the  man  before  the  baby  was  born ! 

I  serve  men,  and  get  their  hate  and  scorn :  the  Sad- 
ducee  grumbles  because  I  tell  him  of  his  soul  and  im- 
mortality; the  Pharisee,  because  I  demand  that  he 
devour  widows'  houses  no  more,  nor  for  a  pretence 
make  long  prayers ;  and  both  of  these  hunkers,  the 
hunker  Sadducee  and  the  hunker  Pharisee,  throw  stones 
at  me,  and  put  me  to  death.  It  all  comes  to  nothing 
for  me  ;  I  am  a  dead  body,  and  not  a  live  man :  that  is 
is  all  I  get  for  my  virtue ! 

I  am  a  brave  man,  and  my  country  needs  me  to  repel 
the  Spanish  Armada,  or  to  keep  imperial  Nicholas,  or 
Francis,  or  papal  Pius  the  Ninth,  or  the  little-hearted 
President  Napoleon,  from  kidnapping  my  liberty.  I  go 
out  to  do  battle,  and  I  come  home  scarred  all  over  with 
heroism,  half  my  limbs  hewed  off,  aching  at  every  pore. 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  17 

Or  I  die  on  the  spot ;  I  carry  no  heroism,  no  manhood 
with  me ;  I  am  a  heap  of  dust  which  other  dust  will 
soon  cover,  but  the  manhood  which  once  enchanted  this 
dust  with  valiant  life,  is  put  out  and  quenched  forever, 
—  it  is  all  gone ;  it  is  nothing.  My  brother  in  that  time 
of  peril  was  a  coward ;  and  when  war  blew  the  trumpet 
and  his  country  called  on  him,  he  crept  under  the  oven. 
When  all  is  over,  and  quiet  is  restored,  he  comes  out 
with  a  whole  skin,  and  over  my  unburied  bones  he 
marches  into  peace  and  carousing,  and  says,  "  A  pretty 
fool  was  this  man  to  lay  down  his  life  for  me  and  get 
nothing  for  it ! "     And  the  atheist  says,  "  He  is  right." 

The  patriot  soldier  gets  his  wounds  and  crutch,  the 
martyr  his  fagot  and  flame,  Jesus  his  cup  of  bitterness 
and  cross  of  death,  —  and  that  is  all.  Dives  has  his 
purple  and  fine  linen,  faring  sumptuously  every  day, 
more  heedless  than  the  dogs  are  of  the  beggar  at  his 
gate.  Lazarus  has  his  sores  and  the  medical  attendance 
of  the  hounds  in  the  street,  but  death  ends  all. 

The  mother,  whose  self-denial  leads  her  to  forget  ev- 
ery thing  but  her  feeble,  crippled  child,  has  nothing  but 
her  transient  affection  and  watching  ;  she  dies  and  all  is 
ended.  Another  mother  abandons  her  sickly,  pestilen- 
tial child  to  die  of  her  neglect,  and  she  lives  forty  years 
longer  in  joyous  wantonness  and  riot ;  and  when  she 
also  passes  away  it  is  to  the  same  end  as  the  other ; 
only  she  for  her  falseness  has  had  forty  years  of  animal 
joy,  and  the  noble  mother  for  her  faithfulness  has  had 
nothing  but  an  instantaneous  death.  And  my  atheist 
says,  "  There  is  no  future  world  to  compensate  the 
mother  who  died  for  love." 

My  life  is  a  great  disappointment,  let  me  suppose ;  — 
and  for  no  fault  of  mine,  but  for  my  excellence,  my 
justice,  my  philanthropy,  for  the  service  I  have  rendered 

2* 


18  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

to  mankind.  I  am  poor,  and  hated,  and  persecuted.  I 
flee  to  my  atheist  for  consolation,  and  I  ask,  "  What 
does  all  this  come  to  ?  "  And  he  says,  "  It  comes  to 
nothing.  Your  nobleness  will  do  you  no  good.  You 
will  die,  and  your  self-denial  will  do  mankind  no  ser- 
vice ;  for  there  is  no  plan,  or  order  in  all  these  things ; 
every  thing  comes  and  goes  by  the  fortuitous  concourse 
of  atoms.  If  you  had  been  a  hunker  you  might  have 
had  money,  ease,  honor,  respectability,  and  a  long  life, 
with  the  approbation  of  your  minister.  You  had  better 
have  been  so." 

I  lay  in  the  ground  one  dearest  to  me ;  some  only 
daughter  —  her  life  but  a  bud,  not  a  blossom,  yet  mere 
bud  as  it  is,  the  better  part  of  my  life.  In  the  agony  of 
my  heart  I  flee  to  my  atheist  for  comfort ;  and  he  can- 
not give  me  a  drop  of  water  from  the  tip  of  his  finger, 
whUe  I  am  tormented  in  that  unutterable  grief.  "  A 
worm,"  says  he,  "has  eaten  up  your  rose-bud.  Get 
what  comfort  you  can.  This  is  the  last  spring  day,  no 
leaf  will  be  green  again  for  you." 

I  come  myself  to  die.  I  have  labored  to  extend  my 
existence,  which  every  man  loves  to  do ;  and  so  I 
reached  back  and  sought  to  find  out  who  my  fathers 
and  grandfathers  were,  and  trace  out  my  pedigree.  I 
wished  to  extend  myself  collaterally,  and  reached  forth 
toward  Nature,  and  linked  myself  with  that  by  science 
and  art,  and  with  man  by  love.  The  same  desire  to 
extend  myself  urges  me  to  go  forward,  instinct  with 
immortality,  and  join  myself  again  to  my  dear  ones, 
and  to  mankind,  for  eternal  life.  But  my  atheist  stands 
between  me  and  futurity.  "  Death  is  the  end,"  says  he. 
"  This  is  a  world  without  a  God ;  you  are  a  body  with- 
out a  soul ;  there  is  a  here  but  no  Hereafter ;  an  earth 
without  a  Heaven.     Die,  and  return  to  your  dust ! " 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  19 

"  I  am  a  philosopher,"  says  he,  "  I  have  been  up  to 
the  sky,  and  there  is  no  Heaven.  Look  through  my 
telescope  :  that  which  you  see  afar  off  there  is  a  little 
star  in  the  nebula  of  Orion's  belt;  so  distant  that  it 
will  take  light  a  thousand  million  years  to  come  from  it 
to  the  earth,  journeying  at  the  rate  of  twelve  million 
miles  a  minute.  There  is  no  Heaven  this  side  of  that ; 
you  see  all  the  way  through ;  there  is  not  a  speck  of 
Heaven.     And  do  you  think  there  is  any  beyond  it  ? 

"  Talk  about  your  soul  I  I  have  been  into  man  with 
my  scalpel  in  my  hand,  and  my  microscope,  and  there 
is  no  soul.  Man  is  bones,  blood,  bowels,  and  brain. 
Mind  is  matter.  Do  you  doubt  this?  Here  is  Ar- 
noldis'  perfect  map  of  the  brain :  there  is  no  soul  there  ; 
nothing  but  nerves. 

"  Talk  of  Providence !  There  is  no  such  thing.  I 
have  been  through  the  universe,  and  there  is  no  God. 
God  is  a  whim  of  men;  Nature  is  a  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms ;  man  is  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
atoms ;  thought  is  a  fortuitous  function  of  matter,  a 
fortuitous  result  of  a  fortuitous  result,  a  chance-shot 
from  the  great  wind-gun  of  the  universe,  —  which  itself 
is  also  a  chance-shot,  from  a  chance-charge  of  a  chance- 
gun,  accidentally  loaded,  pointed  at  random,  and  fired 
off  by  chance.  Things  happen ;  they  are  not  arranged. 
There  is  luck,  and  ill-luck ;  but  there  is  no  providence. 
Die  into  dust !  True,  you  sigh  for  immortality ;  you 
long  for  the  dear  arms  of  father  and  mother,  that  went 
to  the  ground  before  you,  and  for  the  rose-bud  daughter 
prematurely  nipped.  True,  you  complain  of  tears  that 
have  left  a  deep  and  bitter  furrow  in  your  cheek ;  you 
complain  of  virtue  not  rewarded ;  of  nobleness  that  felt 
for  the  Infinite;  of  a  mighty  hungering  and  thirst  for 
everlasting  life ;  a  longing  and  a  yearning  after  God:  — 


20  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

All  that  is  nothing.  Die,  and  be  still ! "  Does  not  that 
content  you  ?  Does  this  theory  square  with  the  facts 
of  consciousness  ? 


III.  Now  look  at  Atheism  as  a  Theory  of  the  Life 
of  Mankind.  Man  came  by  chance ;  the  family  by 
chance ;  society  by  chance ;  nations  by  chance ;  the 
human  race  by  chance.  Man  is  his  own  sole  guide 
and  guardian.  No  Mind  ever  grouped  the  faculties 
together  and  made  a  cosmic  man,  —  it  was  all  chance. 
There  is  no  Mind  which  groups  the  solitary  into  fami- 
lies, these  into  nations,  and  the  nations  to  a  world,  —  it 
is  all  chance.  There  is  no  Providence  for  man,  except 
in  human  heads ;  Politicians  are  the  only  legislators ; 
their  statutes  the  only  law  — "  There  is  no  Higher 
Law."  Kings  and  presidents  are  the  only  rulers :  there 
is  no  great  Father  and  Mother  of  aU  the  nations  of 
mankind.  There  is  no  Mind  that  thinks  for  man,  no 
Conscience  to  enact  eternal  laws,  no  Heart  to  love  me 
when  father  and  mother  forsake  me  and  let  me  fall ;  no 
Will  of  the  universe  to  marshal  the  nations  in  the  way 
of  wisdom,  justice,  and  love.  History  is  the  fortuitous 
concourse  of  events,  as  Nature  of  atoms;  there  is  no 
plan,  nor  purpose  in  it  which  is  to  guide  our  going  out 
and  coming  in.  True,  there  is  a  mighty  going,  but  it 
goes  nowhere.  True,  there  has  been  a  progressive  de- 
velopment of  man's  body  and  mind,  and  the  functions 
thereof;  a  growth  of  beauty,  wisdom,  justice,  affection, 
piety ;  but  it  is  an  accident,  and  may  end  to-morrow, 
and  the  next  day  there  may  be  a  decay  of  mankind,  a 
decay  of  beauty,  intellect,  justice,  affection ;  science,  art, 
literature,  civilization  may  be  all  forgot,  and  the  naked 
savage  come  and  burn  up  Boston,  New  York,  London, 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  21 

and  Paris,  and  drown  the  last  baby  of  civilization  in  the 
blood  of  the  last  mother.  You  are  not  sure  that  any- 
good  will  come  of  it ;  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
any  good  will  come  of  it.  Says  Atheism,  "  Everywhere 
is  instability  and  insecurity." 

Look  on  the  aspect  of  human  misery,  the  outrage, 
blood,  and  wrong  which  the  earth  groans  under.  Here 
is  the  wife  of  a  drunkard,  whose  marriage  life  is  a  per- 
petual violation.  She  married  for  love  a  man  who  once 
loved  her;  but  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  city 
insisted  that  he  should  be  made  a  beast.  A  beast,  did 
I  say  ?  Ye  fourfooted  and  creeping  things  of  the  earth, 
I  beg  your  pardon !  Even  the  swine  is  sober  in  his  sty. 
The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  city  made  this  man  a 
drunkard ;  and  the  poor  wife  watches  over  him,  cleanses 
his  garments,  wipes  off  the  foulness  of  his  debauch,  and 
stitches  her  life  into  the  garments  which  some  wealthy 
tailor  will  sell,  —  giving  her  for  wages  the  tenth  part  of 
his  own  profit,  —  and  which  some  dandy  will  wear,  — 
thanking  the  "  Gods  of  dandies  "  that  he  is  not  like  that 
poor  woman,  so  ill-clad  and  industrious.  She  will 
stitch  her  life  into  the  garments,  working  at  starvation 
wages,  and  yet  will  pay  the  fines  to  keep  the  street 
drunkard  out  of  the  House  of  Correction,  where  the 
city  government  hides  the  bodies  of  the  men  it  slays. 
She  toils  till  at  length  the  silver  cord  of  fife  has  got 
loosed,  and  the  golden  bowl  begins  to  break.  She  goes 
to  my  atheist,  and  asks,  "  What  comes  of  all  this  ? 
Am  I  to  have  any  compensation  for  my  suffering?" 
And  the  Atheist  says,  "  Nothing  comes  of  it ;  there  is 
no  compensation.  You  are  a  fool.  You  had  better 
have  got  a  license  from  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  to 
prey  on  other  men's  wives  about  you;  and  then  you 


22  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

might   have  had  wealth  and  ease   and  respectability. 
You  ought  to  drink  blood,  and  not  shed  your  own." 

"  AbePs  blood  cries  out  of  the  ground ; "  continues 
our  Atheist,  "  but  there  is  no  ear  of  justice  to  hear  it,  and 
Cain,  red  with  slaughter,  goes  off  welcomed  to  the  arms 
of  the  daughters  of  Nod ;  the  victims  of  nobleness  rot 
in  their  blood;  booty  and  beauty  are  both  for  him. 
The  world  festers  with  the  wounds  of  the  hero;  but 
there  is  no  cure  for  them :  the  hero  is  a  fool,  —  his 
wounds  prove  it.  Saint  Catherine  has  her  wheel.  Saint 
Andrew  his  sword.  Saint  Sebastian  his  arrows.  Saint 
Lawrence  his  fire  of  green  wood ;  Paul  has  his  fastings, 
his  watchings,  his  scourge,  and  his  jail,  his  perils  of 
waters,  of  robbers,  of  the  city  and  the  wilderness,  his 
perils  among  false  brethren,  and  Jesus  his  thorny  crown, 
his  malefactor's  death ;  Kossuth  gets  his  hard  fate,  and 
Francis  the  Stupid  sits  on  the  Hungarian  throne ;  the 
patriots  of  France  broil  in  the  tropic  marshes  of  Cay- 
enne, and  Napoleon,  surrounded  by  cultivated  women 
who  make  him  merchandise  of  their  loveliness,  and  by 
able  men  who.  make  merchandise  of  their  intellect, 
Napoleon  fills  his  own  bosom  and  the  throne  of  France 
with  his  debauchery ;  Europe  is  dotted  with  dungeons, 
—  Austrian,  Hungarian,  German,  French,  Italian,  — 
they  are  crowded  with  the  noblest  men  of  the  age,  who 
there  do  perpetual  penance  for  their  self-denial,  their 
wisdom,  their  justice,  their  aff*ection  for  mankind,  and 
their  fidelity  to  God.  These  die  as  the  fool  dieth. 
There  is  no  hope  for  any  one  of  them,  in  a  body  with- 
out a  soul,  in  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  in  a  world 
without  a  God.     Does  not  that  content  you  ?  " 

"  All  the  Christian  world  over.  Oppression  plies  its 
bloody  knout,  —  its  weU  paid  metropolitan  Priest  bless- 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  23 

ing  the  scourge  before  it  is  laid  on.  The  groan  of  the 
poor  comes  up  from  the  bogs  of  Ireland,  and  from  the 
rich  farms  of  England,  and  her  crowded  manufactories. 
Men  make  circumstances  in  London,  which  degrade 
two  hundred  thousand  people  below  the  Cannibals  of 
New  Zealand,  and  starve  the  Irish  into  exile,  brutality, 
or  death.  The  sighing  of  the  prisoner,  breaks  out  from 
the  jail  of  the  tormentor,  who 

'  Holds  the  body  bound, 


But  knows  not  what  a  range  the  spirit  takes.* 

"  The  iron  gripe  of  kings  chokes  the  throat  of  the 
people.  Every  empire  is  girded  at  the  loins  with  an 
iron  belt  of  soldiers,  which  eats  into  the  nation's  flesh. 
Siberia  fattens  with  Freedom's  noble  dead,  and  in  Amer- 
ica three  millions  of  men  drag  out  a  life  in  chains, 
bought  as  cattle,  sold  as  cattle,  counted  as  cattle,  only 
not  prayed  for  in  the  Christian  churches,  as  cattle  are ; 
and  the  little  commissioner  who  kidnaps  at  Boston,  and 
the  great  stealers  of  men  who  enact  the  statutes  which 
make  American  women  into  marketable  things,  are  hon- 
ored in  all  the  '  Christian '  churches  of  the  land.  Most 
of  *  the  great  men,'  all  the  <  citizens  of  eminent  gravity,' 
all  the  *  unimpeachable  divines,'  are  on  the  side  of 
wrong.  Cry  out,  blood  of  Abel !  there  is  no  ear  to  hear 
you.  Victims  of  nobleness,  rot  in  your  blood !  it  will 
enrich  the  ground.  Ye  saints,  —  Catherine,  Andrew, 
Sebastian,  Lawrence,  Paul,  Jesus,  —  bear  your  rack 
and  gibbet  as  best  your  bodies  may !  Kossuth,  stoop 
to  Francis  the  Stupid !  Ye  patriots  of  France,  kneel 
to  Napoleon  the  Little,  and  be  jolly  in  the  Sodom 
which  he  makes.  Ye  that  groan  in  the  dungeons  of  the 
world,  who  starve  in  its  fertile  soils,  who  wear  chains  in 
free  America,  —  yield  to  the  Jeffries,  the  Haynaus,  the 


24  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

slave-hunters,  and  the  priests  !  for  there  is  a  body  with- 
out a  soul,  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  a  world  without 
a  God.     Atheism  is  the  Theory  of  the  Universe ;  and 
there  is  no  God,  no  Cause,  no  Mind,  no  Providence." 
The  Atheist  looks  on  the  lives  of  the  noble  men 

"  Who  In  the  public  breach  devoted  stood, 
And  for  their  country's  cause  were  prodigal  of  blood," 

and  he  says,  "  these  men  were  fools  ;  every  man  of  them 
might  have  been  as  sleek,  as  comfortable,  and  as  fat  as 
the  oiliest  priest  that  Mammon  consecrates.  They 
were  fools,  and  only  fools,  and  fools  continually.  To 
the  individual  hero  there  comes  nothing  but  blood  and 
wounds." 

He  looks  on  the  nations  that  failed  in  their  struggle 
against  a  tyrant's  chain  :  Poland  fell,  and  Kosciusko 
went  to  London,  only  "  Peter  Pindar  "  to  welcome  the 
exile  ;  Greece  went  down  in  Turkish  night ;  Italy  and 
Spain  must  bow  them  to  a  tyrant's  whim,  —  and  the 
Atheist  has  no  hope.  The  States  which  fail  read  no 
lesson  to  mankind,  and  have  no  return  for  their  un- 
blest  toil.  He  looks  on  the  nations  now  in  their  agony 
and  bloody  sweat,  sitting  in  darkness  and  iron  ;  he  sees 
no  Angel  strengthening  them.  What  a  picture  the 
world  presents  :  Heroism  unrequited,  paid  with  misery, 
vice  on  a  throne,  and  nobleness  in  chains.  "Want,  mis- 
ery, violence,  meet  him  everywhere  ;  and  for  his  com- 
fort he  has  his  creed  —  a  body  without  a  soul,  an  earth 
without  a  heaven,  a  world  without  a  God ! 


The  Atheist  sends  out  his  Intellect  to  seek  for  the 
controlling  mind,  which  is  the  Cause  of  the  created,  the 
Reason  of  the  conceivable,  the  ground  of  the  true,  and 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  25 

the  loveliness  of  things  beautiful.  His  intellect  comes 
back,  and  has  brought  nothing,  has  found  nothing,  but 
the  reflection  of  its  own  littleness  mirrored  on  the  sur- 
faces of  things.  He  saw  matter  everywhere  ;  he  met  no 
causal  and  providing  Mind. 

He  sends  dut  his  Moral  Sense  to  seek  the  legislat- 
ing Conscience  which  is  Justice  in  what  is  right,  the 
Ground  of  good,  and  the  Altogether  Beautiful  to  the 
Moral  Sense,  the  Equitable  Will  which  rules  the  world. 
But  his  Moral  Sense  returns  silent,  alone,  and  empty ; 
there  is  no  Equitable  Will,  no  Altogether  Beautiful  of 
moral  excellence,  no  Ground  of  Good,  no  Conscience 
which  enacts  Justice  into  an  unchanging  law  of  right ; 
there  is  only  the  finite  will  of  ^nan,  often  erring  and 
always  feeble,  man  an  animated  and  self-conscious  drop 
of  dew  in  the  Sahara  of  the  world,  conscious  of  desire, 
of  will,  but  of  such  feebleness  that  soon  he  will  exhale 
into  thin  air,  and  be  no  more  a  drop  in  all  the  world,  — 
will  evaporate  into  nothing  Everywhere  is  material 
fate,  material  chance  :  spiritual  order,  spiritual  provi- 
dence, —  that  is  a  dream. 

He  sends  out  his  Affections  on  the  same  quest,  seek- 
ing his  heart's  desire.  They  have  grown  strong  by  love 
of  Nature,  —  the  crystal,  the  plant,  and  animal ;  they 
have  been  educated  by  loving  man  —  parent  and  friend, 
and  wife  and  child,  and  all  mankind  ;  refined  by  loving 
noble  men,  who  attract  ingenuous  youth  as  loadstones 
draw  the  iron  dust.  Now  his  Affections  fly  forth  with 
trembling  wing,  and  seek  the  All-perfect  Ideal,  the  ob- 
ject of  their  love,  to  stay  the  hunger  of  the  heart  which 
craves  the  Infinite  to  feed  upon  and  love.  But  the 
affections  also  come  back  to  Ihe  sad  man  with  no  re- 
turn. "  There  is  nought  to  love,"  say  they ;  "  nothing 
save  man  and  the  ideals  of  his  heart ;  they  are  beauti- 

3 


26  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

ful,  but  only  bubbles  ;  his  warm  breath  fills  them  for  a 
moment ;  how  fair  they  shine,  —  they  cool,  they  perish, 
and  are  not !  The  breath  was  but  a  part  of  the  windy 
cheat  which  blows  along  the  world,  —  the  bubble 
breaks,  and  is  nothing.  There  are  only  finite  things 
for  you  to  love ;  only  finite  things  to  love  you  in  re- 
turn." He  presses  the  frail  object  of  his  affection  closer 
and  closer  to  his  heart.  "  This,  at  least,"  say  I,  "  is 
secure,  and  is  a  fact  —  the  dear  one  is  a  reality,  and 
not  a  dream."  Still  there  is  a  sadness  in  my  eye, 
whence  speaks  the  unrest  and  wasting  of  the  heart 
which  longs  for  the  unchangeable  lovely.  Death  comes 
down  to  separate  me  from  the  best  beloved.  Beauty 
forsakes  the  elemental  clod,  the  lip  is  cold  ;  the  heart  is 
stiU  ;  the  eye  —  its  lovely  light  all  quenched  and  gone. 
Where  is  the  mind  which  once  spoke  to  me  in  hand 
and  lip  ;  the  affection  which  loved  me,  finding  its  de- 
light in  loving,  serving,  and  in  being  loved  ?  It  is 
nothing,  all  gone  —  like  the  rainbow  of  yesterday,  no 
trace  thereof  still  lingering  on  the  sky.  "  But  what ! " 
say  I,  "is  there  nothing  for  me  to  love  which  will 
not  pass  away  ?  "  "  No  :  love  gravitation,  if  you  like, 
cohesion,  the  primary  qualities  of  matter ;  nought  else 
abides."  I  look  up,  and  an  ugly  Force  is  there,  alien 
to  my  mind,  foreign  to  my  conscience,  and  hurtful  to 
my  heart,  and  wantonly  strikes  down  the  One  I  valued 
more  than  self,  and  sought  to  defend  with  my  own 
bosom ;  then  I  die,  I  stiffen  into  rigid  death.  So  the 
heathen  fable  tells  that  Niobe  clung  to  her  children  with 
warding  arms,  while  the  envious  deities  shot  child  after 
child,  daughters  and  fair  sons,  tiU  the  twelve  were  slain, 
and  the  mother,  all  powerless  to  defend  her  own,  herself 
became  a  stone ! 

Last  hope  of  all,  as  first  not  less  of  all,  the  atheist 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  27 

sends  out  his  Soul,  to  seek  its  rest  and  bring  back  tid- 
ings of  great  joy.  Throughout  the  vast  inane  it  flies, 
feeling  the  darkness  with  its  wings,  seeking  the  Soul  of 
all,  which  at  once  is  Reason,  Conscience,  and  the  Heart 
of  all  that  is,  which  will  give  satisfaction  to  the  various 
needs  of  each.  But  the  soul  likewise  comes  back  — 
empty  and  alone,  to  say,  "  There  is  no  God ;  the  uni- 
verse is  a  disorder ;  man  is  a  confusion ;  there  is  no  In- 
finite, no  Reason,  no  Conscience,  no  Heart,  no  Soul  of 
things.  There  is  nought  to  reverence,  to  esteem,  to 
worship,  to  love,  to  trust  in,  nothing  which  in  turn  loves 
us,  with  all  its  universal  force.  I  am  but  a  worm  on 
the  hot  sand  of  the  world,  seeking  to  fly  —  but  it  is 
only  the  instinct  of  wings  I  feel ;  striving  to  walk,  but 
handless  and  without  a  foot;  essaying  then  to  crawl, 
so  it  be  oruly  up.  But  there  is  not  a  blade  of  grass  to 
hold  on  to  and  climb  up  by,  not  a  weed  to  shelter  me 
in  the  intolerable  heat  of  life." 

Thus  left  alone  I  look  at  the  ground,  and  it  seems 
cruel,  —  a  mother  that  devours  her  young.  No  voice 
cries  thence  to  comfort  me  ;  it  is  a  force,  but  nothing 
more.  Its  history  tells  of  tumult,  confusion,  and  con- 
tinual change  ;  it  prophesies  no  future  peace,  tells  of  no 
plan  in  the  confusion.  I  look  up  to  the  sky,  there  looks 
not  back  again  a  kind  Providence,  to  smile  upon  me 
with  a  thousand  starry  eyes,  and  bless  me  with  the 
sun's  ambrosial  light.  In  the  storms  a  vengeful  vio- 
lence, with  its  lightning  sword,  stabs  into  darkness,  seek- 
ing for  murtherable  men. 

There  is  no  Providence,  only  capricious,  senseless 
Fate.  Here  is  the  marble  of  human  nature,  the  athe- 
ist would  pile  it  up  into  palace  or  common  dwelling ; 
but  there  is  only  the  fleeting  sand  to  build  upon,  which 
the  rains  wash  away,  or  the  winds  blow  off";  nowhere  is 


28  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

there  eternal  Rock  to  hold  his  building  up.  No,  he 
has  not  daily  bread,  —  nothing  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of 
his  mind,  his  conscience,  and  his  heart,  the  famine  of 
his  soul,  only  the  cold,  thin  atmosphere  of  fancy. 
Does  he  believe  in  immortality,  —  it  is  an  immortality 
of  fear,  of  doubt,  of  dread.  Experience  tells  him  of  the 
history  of  mankind,  a  sad  history  it  seems,  —  a  record 
of  war  and  want,  of  oppression  and  servility.  He  sees 
that  pride  elbows  misery  into  the  kennel  and  is  honored 
for  the  merciless  act,  that  tyrants  tread  the  nations 
underfoot,  while  some  patriot  pines  to  oblivion  and 
death ;  he  sees  no  prophecy  of  better  things.  How  can 
he  in  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  in  a  soul  without  a 
body,  a  world  without  a  God  ? 

Atheism  sits  down  on  the  shore  of  Time ;  the 
stream  of  Human  History  rolls  by,  bearing  successively, 
as  bubbles  on  its  bosom,  the  Egyptian  civilization,  and 
it  passes  slowly  by  with  its  myriads  of  millions,  and  that 
bubble  breaks ;  the  Hebrew,  Chaldean,  Persian,  Gre- 
cian, Roman,  Christian  civilization,  and  they  pass  by 
as  other  bubbles,  with  their  many  myriads  of  millions 
multiplied  by  myriads  of  miUions.  Their  sorrows  are 
all  ended ;  they  were  sorrows  for  nothing.  The  tears 
which  furrowed  the  cheek,  the  unrequited  heroism,  the 
virtue  unrewarded,  —  they  have  perished,  and  there  is 
no  compensation ;  because  it  is  a  body  without  a  soul, 
an  earth  without  a  heaven,  a  world  without  a  God. 
"  Does  not  that  content  you  ?  "  asks  our  atheist. 

No  man  can  ever  be  content  with  that.  Few  men 
ever  come  to  it,  — 

"  Thanks  to  the  human  heart  by  which  we  live !  " 

Human  nature  stops  a  great  way  this  side  of  that. 
I  am  not  a  cowardly  man ;  but  if  I  wore  convinced 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  29 

there  was  no  God,  my  courage  would  drop  as  water, 
and  be  no  more.  I  am  not  an  unhopeful  man ;  there 
are  few  men  who  hope  so  much;  I  never  despair  of 
truth,  of  justice,  of  love,  and  piety ;  I  know  man  will 
triumph  over  matter,  the  people  over  tyrants,  right  over 
wrong,  truth  over  falsehood,  love  over  hate ;  I  always 
expect  defeat  to-day,  but  I  am  sure  of  triumph  at  the 
last;  and  with  truth  on  my  side,  justice  on  my  side, 
love  on  my  side,  I  should  not  fear  to  stand  in  a  mi- 
nority of  one,  against  the  whole  population  of  this 
whole  globe  of  lands :  I  would  bow  and  say  to  them, 
—  "I  am  the  stronger ;  you  may  glory  now,  but  I 
shall  conquer  you  at  last."  Such  hope  have  I  for 
man  here  and  hereafter,  that  the  wickedest  of  sinners, 
I  trust,  God  will  bring  face  to  face  with  the  best  of 
men,  his  sins  wiped  clean  off,  and  together  they  shall 
sit  down  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  But  take  away  my  consciousness  of  God,  and  I 
have  no  hope ;  none  for  myself,  none  for  you,  none  for 
mankind.  K  no  Mind  in  the  universe  were  greater  than 
Humboldt's,  no  ruler  wiser  than  presidents,  and  kings, 
and  senates,  and  congresses,  if  there  were  no  appeal 
from  the  statutes  of  men  to  the  Laws  of  God,  from  pres- 
ent misery  to  future  eternal  triumph,  on  earth,  or  in 
Heaven,  —  then  I  should  have  no  hope.  But  I  know 
that  the  universe  is  insured  at  the  office  of  the  Infinite 
God,  and  no  particle  of  matter,  no  particle  of  mind  shall 
ever  sufier  ultimate  shipwreck  in  this  vast  voyage  of 
mortal  and  immortal  life. 

I  am  not  a  sad  man.  Spite  of  the  experience  of  life, 
somewhat  bitter,  I  am  a  cheerful,  and  a  joyous,  and  a 
happy  man.  But  take  away  my  consciousness  of  God ; 
let  me  believe  there  is  no  Infinite  God;  no  infinite 
Mind  which    thought  the  world  into   existence,   and 

3* 


30  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

thinks  it  into  continuance  ;  no  infinite  Conscience  which 
everlastingly  enacts  the  Eternal  Laws  of  the  Universe ; 
no  infinite  Affection  which  loves  the  world ;  loves  Abel 
and  Cain,  —  loves  the  drunkard's  wife  and  the  drunk- 
ard ;  the  Mayors  and  Aldermen  who  made  the  drunk- 
ard ;  which  loves  the  victim  of  the  tyrant,  and  loves  the 
tyrant ;  loves  the  slave  and  his  master ;  loves  the  mur- 
dered and  the  murderer,  the  fugitive,  and  the  kidnapper, 
—  publicly  griping  his  price  of  blood,  the  third  part  of 
Iscariot's  pay,  and  then  secretly  taking  his  anonymous 
revenge,  stealthily  calumniating  some  friend  of  human- 
ity ;  convince  me  that  there  is  no  God  who  watches 
over  the  nation,  but  "  forsaken  Israel  wanders  lone ; " 
that  the  sad  people  of  Europe,  Africa,  America,  have 
no  guardian, — then  I  should  be  sadder  than  Egyptian 
night !  My  life  would  be  only  the  shadow  of  a  dimple 
on  the  bottom  of  a  little  brook,  —  whirling  and  passing 
away ;  all  the  joy  I  have  in  the  daily  business  of  the 
world,  in  literatm-e  and  science  and  art,  in  the  friend- 
ships and  wide  philanthropies  of  the  time,  would  perish 
at  once,  —  borne  down  in  the  rush  of  waters  and  lost 
in  their  headlong  noise.  Yes,  I  should  die  in  uncon- 
trollable anguish  and  despair. 

A  realizing  sense  of  atheism,  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
consequences  of  atheism,  —  that  would  separate  our 
nature,  and  we  should  give  up  the  ghost ;  and  the  ele- 
ments of  the  body  would  go  back  to  the  elements  of 
the  earth.  But  —  God  be  thanked !  —  the  foundation 
of  religion  is  too  deep  within  us.  There  is  a  great  cry 
through  all  creation  for  the  Living  God.  Thanks  to 
Him,  the  evidence  of  God  has  been  ploughed  into  Na- 
ture so  deeply,  and  so  deeply  woven  into  the  texture  of 
the  human  soul,  that  very  few  men  call  themselves 
atheists  in  this  sense.     No  man  ever  willingly  came  to 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  31 

this  conclusion :  no  man ;  no,  not  one !  Those  men, 
who  have  arrived  at  this  conclusion,  —  we  should  cast 
no  scorn  at  them  ;  we  should  give  them  our  sympathy ; 
a  friendly  heart,  and  the  most  affectionate  and  tender 
treatment  of  their  soul. 

Religion  is  natural  to  man.  Instinctively  we  turn  to 
God,  reverence  Him,  and  rely  on  Him.  And  when 
Reason  becomes  powerful,  when  all  the  spiritual  facul- 
ties get  enlarged,  and  we  know  how  to  see  the  true,  to 
will  the  just,  to  love  the  beautiful,  and  to  live  the  holy, 
—  then  our  idea  of  God  rises  higher  and  higher,  as  the 
child's  voice  changes  from  the  baby's  treble  pipe  to  the 
dignity  of  manly  speech.  Then  the  feeble,  provisional 
ideas  of  God  which  were  formed  at  J&rst,  pass  by  us ; 
the  true  idea  of  God  gets  written  in  our  soul,  complete 
Beauty  drives  out  partial  ugliness,  and  perfect  Love 
casts  out  all  partial  fear. 


SERMON   II. 

OF    ATHEISM    AS    ETHICS, 


(88) 


LUKE  XVII.  5. 

INCREASE    OUR    FAITH 

(84) 


II. 

OF  PKACTICAL  ATHEISM,  REGARDED   AS  A 
PRINCIPLE   OF  ETHICS. 


Last  Sunday  I  said  something  of  Speculative  Athe- 
ism, that  is,  of  atheism  considered  as  a  theory  of  the 
universe ;  with  some  of  the  effects  on  the  feelings,  and 
the  views  of  Nature,  and  individual  and  general  human 
life,  which  come  thereof.  To-day  I  ask  your  attention 
to  a  sermon  of  Practical  Atheism ;  that  is  to  say,  of 
Atheism,  considered  as  the  Principle  of  practical  Ethics. 

If  a  man  starts  with  the  idea  that  there  is  a  body  and 
no  soul,  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  and  a  world  with- 
out a  God,  that  idea  needs  must  become  a  principle  of 
practice,  and  as  such  it  will  have  a  quite  powerful  effect 
on  the  man's  active  character  ;  it  will  come  at  length  to 
be  the  controlling  principle  of  his  life.  For  as  in  human 
nature  the  religious  is  the  foundation-element  of  man, 
as  I  showed  the  other  day,  so  any  misarrangement  in 
that  quarter  presently  appears  at  the  end  of  the  hands, 
and  affects  the  whole  life  of  man. 

Speculative  Atheism  will  not  be  fully  reduced  to 
practice  aU  at  once,  but  in  the  long  run  it  will  assur- 
edly produce  certain  peculiar  results ;  just  as  certainly 

(36) 


36  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

as  any  seed  you  plant  in  the  ground  will  bear  fruit  after 
its  own  kind,  and  not  after  another  kind.  You  and  I 
are  not  very  consistent,  it  may  be,  and  we  therefore 
aUow  something  to  come  between  our  first  principle 
and  the  conclusion  which  would  follow  from  it;  but 
the  Human  Race  is  exceeding  logical,  and  carries  out 
every  principle  into  practice,  making  its  earnest  thoughts 
into  very  serious  things :  only  the  idea  is  not  carried 
out  at  once,  but  in  long  ages  of  time,  and  by  successive 
generations  of  men.  Every  theological  idea,  positive 
or  negative,  that  is  firmly  believed  in  by  mankind  or  by 
nations,  will  ultimately  be  carried  out  by  them  to  its 
legitimate,  practical  effect,  and  will  appear  in  their  trade, 
politics,  laws,  manners,  —  in  all  the  active  life  of  man- 
kind. We  think  that  the  litany  which  we  repeat  in  the 
church  is  our  confession  of  faith.  Often,  that  reaches 
very  little  ways  in ;  but  the  real  confession  of  the  world's 
faith  is  writ  in  its  trade  and  politics,  in  its  wars  and 
hospitals,  in  its  armies  and  school-houses,  better  than 
in  its  "  pious  literature."  The  history  of  America,  is 
the  publication  of  our  real  theology,  the  confession  of 
our  actual  creed.  Each  intentional  act  comes  from  a 
sentiment  or  idea.  It  is  well  to  see  what  our  ideas  are 
before  the  thought  becomes  a  thing. 

Last  Sunday  I  showed  that  there  was  a  mere  formal 
speculative  atheism,  which  was  only  a  denial  of  God 
in  terms,  or  the  denial  of  the  actuality  of  a  certain 
special  idea  of  God,  but  yet  contained  an  affirmation 
of  the  quality  of  God  under  another  name ;  while  real 
speculative  atheism  was  the  denial  of  the  quality  of 
God  under  all  names,  a  denial  of  the  actuality  of  any 
possible  idea  of  God.  And  I  showed  also  that  there 
were  reputed  atheists,  who  denied  some  specific  notion 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  37 

of  God,  because  they  had  a  better  one ;  and  because 
they  were  really  more  theistic  and  more  religious  than 
the  men  about  them. 

The  same  distinction  is  to  be  made  in  respect  to 
practical  atheism.  Real  practical  atheism  is  the  living 
of  speculative  atheism  as  a  practice  ;  that  is,  the  living 
as  if  there  was  no  God,  who  is  the  Mind,  Cause,  and 
Providence  of  the  world  ;  and  that  is  living  as  if  a  man 
had  no  natural  obligation  to  think  and  speak  true,  to  do 
right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy  or  faithful  to  himself; 
living  as  if  there  were  no  soul,  no  heaven,  no  God. 
That  is  real,  practical  atheism. 

There  is  a  formal  practical  atheism,  which  is  merely 
formal,  and  is  based  on  formal  speculative  atheism.  As 
the  mere  formal  speculative  atheist  denies  the  name  of 
God,  but  affirms  the  quality  of  God,  and  ascribes  that 
quality  to  Natura,  —  so  the  mere  formal  practical  atheist 
denies  that  man  owes  any  natural  absolute  obligation 
to  God,  to  think  tnie,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be 
holy ;  but  he  affirms  that  he  owes  this  natural  and  abso- 
lute obligation  to  Nature  ;  either  to  all  Nature,  repre- 
sented by  the  universe,  or  to  partial  Nature,  represented 
by  mankind,  or  by  the  individual  man,  or  some  special 
faculty  in  man.  In  this  case  the  atheist  really  affirms 
the  absolute  obligation  of  man  to  the  quality  of  God, 
only  he  gives  that  quality  of  God  another  name,  and  is 
no  practical  atheist  at  all;  though  he  thinks  he  is  so, 
and  calls  himself  by  that  hard  name.  For  only  the 
semblance  of  real  practical  atheism  can  be  built  on  the 
semblance  of  real  speculative  atheism.  If  a  man  con- 
fesses that  he  has  a  natural  and  absolute  obligation  to 
think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy,  it  is 
comparatively  of  little  consequence  whether   he   says 

4 


38  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

that  he  owes  this  obligation  to  Nature  or  to  God; 
because  in  such  a  case  he  means  the  same  by  the 
word  "  Nature  "  that  another  man  means  by  the  word 
"  God ; "  and  the  obligation  is  the  same,  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  is  the  same,  and  the  duty  which  comes  there- 
from will  be  just  the  same. 

I  dislike  to  hear  Nature  called  God,  or  God  called 
Nature.  Let  each  thing  have  its  own  name.  In  due 
time  I  will  show  what  evils  are  like  to  follow  from  this 
confusion  of  terms,  miscalling  the  finite  and  the  Infinite. 
Stni  that  confusion  is  not  atheism. 

Real  practical  atheism,  I  say,  is  the  carrying  out  of 
real  speculative  atheism  into  life,  living  as  if  there  were 
no  natural  obligation  on  man  to  think  true,  to  do  right, 
to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy ;  no  obligation,  therefore,  to 
be  faithful  to  himself  as  a  whole,  or  to  any  part  of  him- 
self as  a  part. 

This  real  practical  atheism  is  divisible  for  the  present 
purpose  into  two  forms. 

First,  the  Undisguised  practical  Atheism.  Here  the 
practical  atheist  openly  and  undisguisedly  denies  the 
quality  of  God,  denies  that  he  owes  any  natural  obliga- 
tion to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  or  to  be  self- 
faithful  ;  and  on  the  contrary  affirms  speculative  atheism 
as  his  practical  principle  and  motive  of  life,  and  then 
endeavors  to  live  up  to  it,  —  or  live  down  to  it.  That 
is  one  form. 

Second,  the  other  is  Disguised  practical  Atheism. 
Here  the  practical  atheist  acts  on  the  idea  that  he  has 
no  natural  obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel 
kind,  and  to  be  holy ;  and  thus  really  and  in  act  denies 
the  idea  of  God ;  but  suppresses  the  formal  denial  of 
God  and  the  affirmation  of  atheism ;  or  he  even  goes 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  39 

SO  far  as  to  affirm  his  belief  in  God,  and  deny  his  as- 
sumption of  atheism  as  a  principle  of  action.  That  is 
the  other  form. 

Now  in  truth  these  two  men,  the  undisguised  pro- 
fessor of  atheism,  and  the  disguised  practiser  thereof,  if 
they  were  consistent,  would  act  pretty  much  alike  in 
most  cases,  and  do  the  same  thing ;  only  the  undis- 
guised atheist  would  do  it  overtly,  with  no  denial  of  the 
fact  and  motive,  but  with  the  affirmation  of  each  ;  and 
the  disguised  atheist  would  do  it  covertly,  denying  both 
the  fact  and  the  motive,  thus  adding  hypocrisy  to  athe- 
ism. The  undisguised  atheist  will  be  the  more  manly, 
because  he  is  more  thorough-going  in  his  manhood ; 
and  such  a  person  will  always  command  a  certain 
degree  of  admiration,  because  it  is  manly  in  the  man 
to  say  right  out  what  he  thinks  right  in ;  and  if  he  is 
going  to  live  after  a  certain  principle,  to  declare  that 
principle  beforehand.  There  is  a  consistency  of  man- 
hood in  that,  and  the  very  assertion  is  therefore  often  a 
guarantee  of  the  man's  honesty.  But  the  disguised 
atheist  will  be  the  more  atheistic,  because  he  is  really 
the  more  thorough-going  in  his  atheism.  One  is  true 
to  his  natural  character  as  man,  the  other  to  his  con- 
ventional character  as  atheist,  for  as  atheism  is  the 
negation  of  Nature,  so  the  negation  of  itself  is  a  legit- 
imate function  of  atheism.  The  reason  of  this  will 
appear  presently. 

I  said  last  Sunday  that  there  never  was  any  com- 
plete, real  speculative  atheism  in  the  world ;  for  com- 
plete, real  speculative  atheism  is  so  abhorrent  to  human 
nature,  that  if  a  man  had  a  realizing  sense  thereof  and 
of  its  speculative  consequences,  he  must  needs  die  out- 
right. I  may  say  the  same  of  complete,  real  practical 
atheism.     There  is  no  complete  and  real  practical  athe- 


40  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

ism  ;  for  I  think  nobody  could  ever  be  perfectly  consist- 
ent with  real  speculative  atheism,  and  live  as  if  he  felt 
absolutely  no  obligation  to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to 
feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy.  That,  therefore,  is  an  ex- 
treme which  man  cannot  possibly  reach.  Human 
nature  would  give  up  before  it  came  to  such  a  conclu- 
sion. It  is  conceivable  —  but  neither  actual  nor  pos- 
sible. 

But  yet  there  is  a  great  deal  of  practical  conduct 
which  logically  rests  on  this  basis,  and  on  no  other,  and 
though  no  man  was  ever  fully  false  to  his  nature,  and 
fully  true  to  his  atheism,  yet  very  many  are  partially 
false  to  their  nature,  and  partially  true  to  atheism ;  and 
so  there  is  a  good  deal  of  practical  atheism  in  the  world ; 
much  more  than  there  appears  of  real  speculative  athe- 
ism ;  and  though  no  man  is  a  complete  practical  atheist, 
yet  there  are  many  with  whom  practical  atheism  pre- 
ponderates in  their  daily  life,  and  turns  the  balance.  I 
mean  to  say  they  live  more  atheistically  than  theistical- 
ly.  The  man  does  not  clearly  say  to  himself,  "  There 
is  no  God ; "  he  only  half-says  it,  and  little  more  than 
half-acts  on  that  supposition.  He  does  not  say  out, 
"  There  is  no  God,  and  hence  no  obligation  to  speak 
true,  act  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  faithful  to  myself ; "  be- 
cause, first,  there  is  some  theism  left  in  the  man,  —  I 
think  nobody  can  ever  empty  himself  wholly  of  the 
consciousness  of  God ;  —  or  next,  because  the  man  is 
not  fully  self-conscious  of  his  consciousness,  so  to  say, 
and  does  not  really  and  distinctly  bring  to  light  the 
principles  which  are  yet  the  governing  principles  in  his 
nature ;  —  Or,  finally,  if  he  is  thus  conscious,  he  does 
not  dare  to  say  it,  but  yet  acts  mainly  on  that  supposi- 
tion. Now  there  is  a  great  deal  of  this  in  the  world ; 
very  much  more  than  appears  at  first  sight. 


PRACTICAL    ATHEISM.  41 

I  mentioned  the  other  day  that  some  men  whom  I 
knew,  calling  themselves  atheists,  were  yet  excellent 
men ;  true,  just,  loving,  and  holy  men ;  full  of  a  certain 
religiousness,  eminently  faithful  to  themselves,  keeping 
the  integrity  of  their  conscience  at  great  cost  of  self- 
denial,  and  feeling  more  strongly  than  the  majority  of 
men  the  absolute  obligation  they  were  under  to  be  faith- 
ful to  every  limb  of  their  body  and  every  faculty  of  their 
spirit.  These  were  only  formal  atheists,  not  real  athe- 
ists. They  did  not  think  there  was  no  God ;  they  only 
thought  that  they  thought  so.  Some  of  these  men 
have  really  a  higher  idea  of  the  quality  of  God  than  the 
Christians  about  them ;  only  they  do  not  call  it  God, 
but  Nature ;  for  the  "  Nature  "  of  the  physical  philoso- 
pher, or  the  "  Mind  "  of  the  metaphysical  philosopher  is 
sometimes  higher  in  some  particulars,  than  the  notion 
of  the  "  Trinity,"  or  the  notion  of  the  "  Unity,"  which 
the  general  run  of  Christians  have  formed.  I  am  bound 
as  a  faithful  man  to  confess  this.  So  some  of  these 
who  are  called  atheists,  and  who  name  themselves  so, 
are  in  reality  more  theistic  and  more  religious  than  the 
general  run  of  Christians  about  them.  Such  men  as 
these  do  not  show  the  practical  characteristics  of  real 
atheism,  but  of  the  real  theism  which  they  have  dis- 
guised to  themselves  by  the  name  of  atheism. 

Thus  one  of  these  in  America  says,  "  It  will  do  very 
well  for  Christian  Doctors  of  Divinity  and  deacons,  who 
believe  in  an  angry  God  that  will  damn  mankind  for- 
ever, to  declare  there  is  in  the  universe  no  Law  higher 
than  the  Baltimore  Platform,  and  the  Compromise  Meas- 
ures of  the  American  Congress.  It  will  do  very  well  for 
them  to  declare  that  an  angry  God  has  given  politicians 
authority  to  make  such  statutes,  and  declare  them  bind- 
ing on  men,  and  so  '  suppress '  and  '  discountenance  aU 

4* 


42  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

agitation '  for  the  welfare  of  one  sixth  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country.  But  atheists,  who  believe  in  Na- 
ture, —  the  material  world,  —  in  Mind,  —  the  spiritual 
world,  —  they  must  declare  that  there  is  a  Higher  Law; 
to  wit:  the  Law  of  Nature,  seen  everywhere  in  the 
ground,  and  in  the  sun ;  and  the  Law  of  Mind  also, 
felt  everywhere  in  the  consciousness  of  Man." 

It  is  very  plain  that  this  man,  though  he  calls  him- 
self an  atheist,  has  really  an  idea  of  God,  and  conse- 
quently of  man's  obligation  to  speak  true,  act  right,  feel 
kind,  and  be  holy,  much  higher  than  the  Christian  di- 
vine who  would  send  his  mother  into  bondage  to  keep 
the  Compromise  Measures ;  a  much  higher  idea  than 
the  man  who  would  renounce  his  reason  for  the  sake 
of  his  creed,  and  who  would  give  up  his  humanity  in 
order  to  join  a  church,  or  to  keep  the  wicked  statutes 
which  men  make  in  their  parliaments.  Here  you  per- 
ceive the  man  calling  himself  by  that  ugly  name,  was 
only  a  formal  atheist,  and  had  really  an  idea  of  God 
which  vastly  transcended  that  of  the  churches  about 
him.     I  am  bound  in  justice  to  say  this. 

The  actual  consequence  of  atheism  as  a  principle  of 
action  is  something  very  different  from  that.  The  prac- 
tical atheist,  starting  from  his  speculative  principle  that 
there  is  nothing  which  is  the  Mind,  the  Cause,  and  the 
Providence  of  the  universe,  or  of  any  part  thereof;  and 
accordingly  that  Nature  and  Man  are,  respectively,  the 
only  mind,  cause,  and  providence  of  themselves,  —  he 
must  necessarily  believe  that  man  is  under  no  natural 
and  absolute  obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel 
kind,  and  to  be  holy.  He  must  deny  that  there  is  any 
such  obligation  to  God,  because  he  denies  the  existence 
of  God,  or  because  he  denies  the  existence  of  the  quality 
of  God,  and  he  must  deny  that  he  owes  this  obligation 


PEACTICAL  ATHEISM.  43 

to  himself ;  for  as  man  is  his  own  mind,  cause,  provi- 
dence, lawgiver,  and  director,  so  every  propensity  of  the 
man  is  likewise  and  equally  its  own  cause,  its  own 
mind,  its  own  providence,  its  own  lawgiver  and  director. 
Accordingly  passion  is  no  more  amenable  to  reason  and 
conscience,  than  reason  and  conscience  are  amenable  to 
passion.  The  parts  are  no  more  amenable  to  the  whole, 
than  the  whole  to  any  one  of  the  parts.  Man  is  finite, 
and  there  is  no  Higher  Being  above  man ;  and  so  there 
is  no  Higher  Law  above  the  caprice  of  any  passion  or 
any  calculation.  The  man  may  will  any  thing  that  he 
will,  and  it  shall  be  his  law.  For  reason  there  stands 
the  arbitrary  caprice  of  man,  the  arbitrary  caprice  of 
each  instinctive  desire,  or  of  any  calculated  act  of  will, 
and  no  more. 

K  the  atheist  admits  there  is  in  human  consciousness 
an  Idea  of  Right,  he  must  declare  it  is  not  any  more 
binding  upon  man  than  the  Idea  of  Wrong.  We  form 
an  Idea  of  Absolute  Right :  "  it  is  a  mere  whim,"  says 
the  atheist;  "there  exists  no  substance  in  which  the 
Absolute  Right  can  inhere.  It  is  an  abstract  quality 
which  belongs  to  no  substance.  It  is  a  nothing ;  only 
it  differs  from  an  absolute  transcendental  nothing  in 
this,  that  it  is  a  thinkable  nothing ;  not  real,  —  an  actual 
thing;  not  possible,  —  a  thing  to  become  actual;  yet 
conceivable  —  an  actual  thought  in  the  mind.  You 
may  distribute  Twthing'  into  various  heads,  and  say  there 
is  a  pure  nothing,  which  cannot  be  conceived  of  at  all. 
You  can  have  no  notion  of  a  pure  nothing  —  it  is  not 
even  thinkable;  that  is  absolute  transcendental  nega- 
tion —  a  denial  of  subjective  conceivableness,  as  well 
as  of  objective  actuality.  Then  you  may  say,  there  is 
also  another  form  of  nothing,  which  is  the  thinkable 
nothing.     According  to  an  atheist,  God  is  a  thinkable 


44  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

nothing,  and  the  Idea  which  men  have  of  God,  has  no 
more  objective  actualness  to  support  it,  than  the  Idea 
of  Light  would  have  if  aU  material  light,  aU  actual,  and 
all  possible  light,  were  blotted  out  of  being.  Then  all 
the  necessary  attributes  of  God  fall  into  the  same  class 
—  thinkable  nothings.  So  do  all  the  transcendent  attri- 
butes of  man.  Truth  is  a  thinkable  nothing.  Justice  a 
thinkable  nothing,  and  any  excellence  which  surpasses 
the  excellence  of  Thomas,  and  Richard,  and  Henry,  or 
all  actual  men,  is  also  nothing ;  only  it  is  a  thinkable 
nothing,  not  a  transcendental  nothing. 

This  being  the  case,  there  is  nothing  for  me  to  aspire 
after.  Ideal  wisdom,  justice,  love,  holiness,  each  is  but 
a  thinkable  nothing;  —  I  should  not  aspire  after  that, 
more  than  I  should  marshal  ghosts  into  an  army  to  go 
out  and  fight  a  battle ;  or  put  in  battery  a  non-existent 
but  yet  thinkable  cannon,  which  is  no  cannon,  and  good 
for  nothing.  And  then,  all  reverence  must,  of  course,  be 
weeded  out  from  the  mind  of  the  practical  atheist.  He 
can  only  reverence  something  that  he  sees  with  his  eye 
or  feels  with  his  hand,  or  reverence  himself.  This 
faculty  of  reverence  which  is  born  in  us,  —  so  delightful 
as  a  sentiment,  as  a  principle  so  strong,  —  must  take 
one  of  two  forms :  that  of  servility,  crouching  down 
before  a  man ;  or  of  self-esteem,  strutting  proudly  in 
its  own  conceit.    There  is  no  other  form  possible  for  it. 

The  practical  atheist  denies  God,  and  of  course 
denies  religion  in  all  its  parts ;  absolutely  denies  all 
obligation ;  to  him  the  idea  of  obligation  and  of  duty 
must  lack  actuality.  He  must  deny  my  obligation  to 
conform  to  my  reason,  conscience,  affections.  There  is 
no  reason  therefore  why  I  should  speak  and  think  true, 
do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy,  if  it  is  agreeable  to  me 
to  do  otherwise.     Therefore  if  I  am  an  atheist,  and  if 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  45 

atheism  be  unpopular,  my  atheism  will  justify  me  in 
denying  atheism  itself  and  in  affirming  theism.  So 
atheism,  in  this  way,  is  self-destructive ;  its  development 
is  its  dissolution.  So  to  deny  atheism,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, will  be  more  atheistic  than  to  affirm  it. 
The  atheist  who  denies  it  is  false  to  his  manhood ; 
there  is  no  atheistic  reason  why  he  should  be  true  to  it ; 
and  the  more  he  denies  it,  the  more  he  is  faithful  to  his 
atheistic  opinion.  So  the  expedient  must  take  the 
place  of  the  true  and  the  right;  the  agreeable  must  take 
the  place  of  the  beautiful ;  desire,  the  place  of  duty ; 
and  I  will  must  take  the  place  of  that  solemn  word,  I 
ought  There  can  be  no  ought  in  the  grammar  of 
atheism. 

But  as  the  atheist  in  denying  God  denies  the  soul, 
and  in  doing  that  denies  the  immortality  of  man,  his 
range  of  expediency  must  be  limited  to  this  life ;  and 
not  only  must  it  be  limited  to  the  earthly  life  of  the 
human  race,  —  which  may  be  eternal  for  aught  we 
know,  —  but  it  must  be  limited  to  the  life  of  the  partic- 
ular atheist  who  thinks  it,  and  even  to  the  humbler  fac- 
ulties and  lower  wants  of  his  nature  ;  and  so  the  high- 
est thing  he  can  desire  must  be  his  own  present  com- 
fort. That  is  the  highest  real  thing  that  he  knows. 
So  speculative  atheism  reduced  to  practice,  must  logi- 
cally lead  to  complete  material  selfishness,  and  can  lead 
to  nothing  else. 

But  as  human  nature  will  not  allow  complete  specu- 
lative atheism  as  a  theory  of  the  universe,  so  it  will  not 
any  more  allow  complete  practical  atheism,  or  complete 
selfishness,  as  a  principle  of  life.  There  is  a  margin  of 
oscillation  around  every  man,  and  we  are  allowed  to 
vibrate  a  little  from  side  to  side.  This  margin  seems 
sometimes  pretty  wide,  but  complete  practical  atheism 


46  PBACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

or  complete  speculative  atheism  lies  a  great  ways  be- 
yond the  limit  of  human  oscillation.  It  is  a  think- 
able nothing,  —  conceivable  but  not  actual,  or  even  pos- 
sible. Still  practical  atheism  actually  tends  to  that  con- 
clusion. 


All  this  which  I  have  said  is  general  in  its  applica- 
tion; is  universal  —  it  will  apply  to  all  forms  of  life. 
Now  see  how  this  atheism  will  manifest  itself  in  the 
practical  conduct  of  men  in  the  various  forms  of  Indi- 
vidual, Domestic,  Social,  National,  and  General  Human 
Life.     Let  me  say  a  word  of  each  of  these  in  its  order. 

I.    I  will  speak  first  of  the  Individual  Life. 

As  by  the  atheistic  theory  of  the  universe  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  moral  obligation,  no  such  thing  as  Duty, 
no  Absolute  Right,  —  as  Man  is  the  highest  Mind  in 
the  universe,  his  own  Cause,  his  own  Providence,  his 
own  Originator,  his  own  Sustainer,  and  his  own  Direc- 
tor, —  so  he  is  perfectly  free  to  do  exactly  as  he  pleases. 
Duty  will  resolve  itself  into  caprice  of  selfishness. 
Each  man  is  to  concentrate  himself  particularly  upon 
the  desire  that  is  uppermost  at  the  time ;  for  as  I  am 
my  own  end,  and  to  seek  my  own  welfare  at  aU  hazards, 
so  each  particular  propensity  in  me  is  its  own  end,  and 
to  seek  its  own  welfare,  —  that  is,  its  own  gratification, 
—  at  any  or  aU  hazards. 

So  in  my  Period  of  Passion,  the  gratification  of  the 
passional  propensities  will  be  the  chief  thing  which  I 
am  to  seek.  I  recognize  no  Higher  Law,  in  me  or  out 
of  me ;  no  law  to  prescribe  a  rule  of  conduct  for  me  as 
a  whole,  or  to  prescribe  a  rule  of  conduct  for  any  par- 
ticular part  of  me,  —  any  special  passion.  To  acknowl- 
edge an  imperative  and  extra-human  law  from  without, 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  47 

which  has  a  natural  right  to  claim  allegiance  from  me 
and  to  rule  me  as  a  whole  —  that  would  be  to  confess  a 
God;  not  in  terms,  but  in  fact.  To  acknowledge  an 
imperative  and  extra-passional  law  within  me,  to  which 
I  owe  allegiance  and  which  has  a  natural  right  to  rule 
over  any  one  passion,  is  to  acknowledge  God  in  degree ; 
for  what  has  a  natural  right  to  rule  absolutely  over  any 
one  particular  propensity  is  God,  so  far  as  that  propensity 
is  concerned ;  and  as  I  deny  the  actuality  of  the  Infinite, 
and  do  not  acknowledge  a  God  who  is  the  Reason  and 
Conscience  of  the  Universe  and  has  the  right  to  rule 
over  me  as  a  whole,  no  more  do  I  acknowledge  that 
my  own  personal  reason  and  conscience  have  the  right 
to  rule  over  me  or  over  any  special  appetite  or  desire. 
There  is  no  extra-personal  and  Infinite  Norm  to  pre- 
scribe a  rule  of  conduct  for  me  ;  there  is  no  intra-personal 
and  finite  norm  to  prescribe  a  rule  of  conduct  for  any  ap- 
petite or  passion.  So  I  am  to  let  my  passion  have  its 
swing  in  its  quest  for  pleasure.  If  I  have  got  rid  of  the 
great  God  of  the  universe,  and  acknowledge  no  abso- 
lute obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind, 
and  to  be  holy,  —  it  wiU  be  ridiculous  in  me  to  set  up  a 
little  God  in  my  own  consciousness,  and  acknowledge 
the  obligation  of  my  members  to  conform  thereto  in 
any  one  particular. 

So  the  negation  of  religion  as  a  whole  carries  with 
it  the  negation  of  control  over  any  one  particular  pas- 
sion. As  the  universe  is  a  "  fortuitous  concourse  of 
atoms,"  without  any  thing  to  rule  it,  with  no  mind  to 
direct  it,  self-originated,  self-directed,  self-sustained,  so 
my  consciousness  must  be  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
passions  with  no  harmony  therein ;  every  passion  self- 
originated,  self-directed,  self-sustained,  its  own  end,  and 


48  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

to  seek  its  own  gratification  wholly  regardless  of  its 
neighbor,  or  the  whole  body. 

Accordingly  in  the  Period  of  Passion  I  may  give 
loose  to  my  instinctive  appetites.  You  come  to  me 
and  say,  "  There  is  a  God.  You  must  not  break  his 
law."  I  deny  this.  "  At  least  there  is  something  that 
is  right,  and  you  must  do  that."  I  deny  that  also ;  I 
say  there  is  no  such  thing  as  right.  "  At  any  rate  you 
must  control  your  passions  for  the  good  of  your  whole 
nature,  during  a  long  life."  But,  why  should  I  do  that  ? 
What  right  have  I  to  control  this  or  that  passion,  and 
debar  it  of  its  temporary  lust,  for  the  sake  of  giving 
the  whole  man  a  lasting  delight  ?  The  passion  has  no 
norm  but  itself ;  what  right  has  the  whole  man  to  con- 
trol any  part  of  him,  or  one  part  to  hold  another  in 
check  ?  or  put  off  pleasure  to-day  for  more  pleasure  to- 
morrow ?  So  at  this  period  of  life  anarchy  of  passions 
is  the  only  atheistic  self-government. 

In  the  Period  of  Ambition  —  which  in  New  England 
is  commonly  by  far  the  more  dangerous  of  the  two,  as 
its  perils  lead  to  fortune,  and  the  ruin  it  brings  is 
deemed  "  eminent  success "  —  I  am  to  let  the  other 
selfish  propensities  seek  each  its  own  object,  and  not 
hinder  them.  I  am  covetous  :  I  am  not  to  restrain  my 
avarice  by  my  reason,  my  conscience,  my  affections; 
I  am  to  seek  my  own  gain  in  all  ways,  at  all  hazards, 
and  in  derision  of  reason,  of  conscience,  and  of  affection. 
There  is  no  principle  to  stand  between  me  and  the  dol- 
lar, or  the  office  which  I  covet.  I  am  to  be  wholly  un- 
scrupulous in  my  zeal,  and  in  the  means  I  make  use  of 
to  achieve  my  end.  I  have  a  great  love  of  power,  fame, 
ease  ;  and  I  am  to  let  each  of  these  desires  have  its  full 
swing.     There  is  no  higher  power  to  prescribe  a  rule  of 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  49 

conduct  for  my  ambition,  more  than  for  my  passion. 
Here  all  must  be  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  ambitions, 
the  anarchy  of  ambitions  is  the  only  atheistic  self-gov- 
ernment at  this  period. 

So  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  my  life  from  being  the 
mere  selfishness  of  passion  in  youth,  seeking  pleasure 
as  its  object;  or  the  selfishness  of  ambition  in  manhood, 
seeking  profit  as  its  goal ;  for  nothing  has  any  right  to 
stand  between  me  and  the  object  of  my  ambition,  more 
than  between  me  and  the  object  of  my  passion.  Athe- 
ism must  be  universal  anarchy ! 

Now  each  of  these  forms  of  atheism  may  assume  two 
modes.  One  is  that  of  Gross  Selfishness,  that  is,  gross 
sensualism  of  pleasure  in  the  period  of  passion,  or  gross 
calculation  of  profit  in  the  period  of  ambition.  It  will 
terminate  in  the  gross  voluptuary  or  the  gross  hunker. 
That  is  one  form.  It  is  the  rude,  coarse,  vulgar  form. 
It  is  the  shape  in  which  atheism  would  manifest  itself 
with  the  poor,  with  the  uneducated,  with  the  roughest 
of  men.  It  is  the  atheism  of  savagery, — the  practical 
atheism  of  St.  Giles'  parish  in  London. 

The  other  mode  is  that  of  Refined  Selfishness,  that  is, 
refined  sensualism  of  pleasure  in  the  period  of  passion, 
or  the  refined  calculation  of  profit,  in  the  period  of  am- 
bition ;  and  so  here  it  will  terminate  in  the  delicate  and 
subtle  voluptuary,  or  else  in  the  delicate  and  subtle 
hunker ;  —  This  is  the  atheism  of  civilization,  the  athe- 
ism of  St.  James'  parish  in  London.  The  mode  will 
depend  on  the  temperament  and  circumstances  of  the 
man.  And  yet  you  see  these  two  are  generically  the 
same;  with  unity  of  idea  and  unity  of  purpose,  both 
seek  a  selfish  object,  and  both  come  to  the  same  end, 
only  one  in  the  deficate  and  the  other  in  the  gross  form. 

5 


50  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

In  either  case  the  aim  of  life  is  to  be  the  rehabilitation 
of  selfishness ;  I  mean  the  enthroning  of  selfishness  as 
the  leading  practical  principle  of  life.  The  atheist  is  to 
look  on  every  faculty  as  an  instrument  of  pleasure  or 
profit ;  to  look  on  his  life  as  a  means  of  selfishness  and 
no  more ;  to  look  on  himself  as  a  beast  of  pleasure  or  a 
beast  of  prey.  Behold  the  man  of  atheism !  —  his  con- 
trolling principle  selfishness ;  his  life  "  poor,  and  nasty, 
and  short  I " 

Now  man  is  not  selfish  by  nature.  We  have  self-love 
enough  to  hold  us  together.  Self-love,  the  conservative 
principle  of  man,  is  the  natural  girdle  put  about  our 
consciousness  to  keep  us  from  falling  loose,  and  spread- 
ing, and  breaking  asunder.  In  human  nature  self-love 
is  not  too  strong.  When  all  the  faculties  act  in  har- 
mony there  is  no  excess  of  this.  But  if  you  deny  that 
faculty  which  looks  to  the  Infinite,  which  hungers  for 
the  ideal  true,  the  ideal  just  and  lovely  and  holy,  then 
self-love,  conservative  of  the  individual,  degenerates 
into  selfishness,  invades  others,  and  each  man  becomes 
merely  selfish. 

This  fact  implies  no  defect  in  the  original  constitu- 
tion of  Man ;  for  it  is  a  part  of  the  plan  of  human  na- 
ture that  religion,  the  consciousness  of  God,  should  be 
the  foundation-element  of  spiritual  consciousness,  and 
so  the  condition  of  manifestation  for  all  the  high  facul- 
ties put  together  :  and  as  roses  will  not  bloom  without 
light  and  warmth,  or  as  ships  cannot  keep  the  sea  with- 
out keel  and  rudder  and  a  hand  upon  the  helm,  no  more 
can  the  high  qualities  of  humanity  come  forth  without 
we  put  in  its  proper  place  the  foundation-element  of 
man,  and  let  the  religious  faculty  lay  its  hand  upon  the 
helm.     The  individual  atheist,  if  consistent,  must  prac- 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  51 

tically  live  in  utter  selfishness  —  material  selfishness,  sel- 
fishness bounded  by  the  short  span  of  his  own  earthly 
existence.     And  that  is  individual  ruin. 

II.  See  next  the  effect  of  practical  atheism  on  Do- 
mestic Life,  in  the  Family.  The  normal  basis  and 
bond  of  union  in  the  family  is  Mutuality  of  Love  in  its 
various  forms:  connubial — between  man  and  wife, — 
parental,  affiliative  or  kindly  between  kith  and  kin,  — 
and  friendly  love. 

Connubial  love  in  its  normal  state  consists  of  two 
factors,  —  passion,  seeking  the  welfare  of  the  lover,  and 
afTection,  which  seeks  the  welfare  of  the  beloved.  In 
normal  connubial  love  these  two,  the  plastic  and  the 
pliant  are  coordinated  together.  Each  aims  to  delight 
the  other  more  than  to  enjoy  himself,  and  finds  his  satis- 
faction less  in  enjoying  than  in  delighting.  Passion  is 
then  beautiful  and  affection  is  delightful.  Self-love  is 
subordinate  to  the  love  of  another,  the  special  to  the 
universal.  The  love  of  the  true,  the  just,  the  ever  beau- 
tiful, and  the  holy,  comes  in,  and  prevents  even  the 
existence  of  selfishness.  This  condition  affords  an  op- 
portunity for  developing  and  enjoying  some  of  the 
highest  qualities  of  man.  Passion  is  instinctive,  and 
affection  also  is  instinctive  at  first ;  but  as  man  de- 
velops himself  by  culture,  as  the  human  race  enlarges 
in  its  progressive  unfolding,  so  the  affections  become 
larger  and  larger,  more  powerful  in  the  individual  and 
the  race,  and  the  joy  of  delighting  becomes  greater  and 
more. 

But  in  practical  atheism  the  family  must  rest  on 
Mutuality  of  Selfishness,  not  on  mutuality  of  love. 
And  this  must  appear  in  all  its  forms,  in  the  relation 
between  acquaintances  or  friends,  between  kith  and  kin, 


52  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

between  parent  and  child,  between  man  and  wife. 
Marriage  must  be  only  for  the  selfishness  of  transient 
pleasure,  or  the  selfishness  of  permanent  profit.  The 
parental  and  filial  relation  must  be  only  a  relation  of 
selfishness,  the  parents  wanting  the  child  to  serve  them 
as  a  beast  of  burden  or  as  a  toy,  and  the  children  want- 
ing the  parent  to  serve  them,  and  valuing  father  or 
mother  only  for  what  they  get  therefrom.  The  rela- 
tions of  kinship,  of  brother  and  sister,  of  uncle  and 
nephew,  of  aunt  and  niece ;  the  relation  of  friendship 
must  also  be  of  selfishness,  and  no  more.  Passion 
must  be  all  lust,  and  affection  die  out  and  give  place  to 
selfish  calculation.  The  wife  must  be  the  husband's 
tool  or  his  toy,  and  the  husband  the  toy  or  the  tool  of 
the  wife. 

Marriage  is  then  possible  for  the  sake  only  of  three 
things ;  first,  for  animal  gratification ;  next  for  pecu- 
niary profit ;  last  for  social  respectability.  It  is  a  union 
of  passions  in  the  one  case,  of  estates  in  the  next,  of 
respectabilities  in  the  last ;  at  any  rate  it  is  the  conjunc- 
tion of  bodies  without  a  soul,  of  selfishness  without 
self-denial,  for  a  here  with  no  hereafter,  and  in  a  world 
with  no  God.  Behold  the  family  of  practical  atheists ! 
Atheism  gone  to  housekeeping!  the  housekeeping  of 
atheism  like  the  individual  life  thereof,  —  must  be  what 
Hobbes  said  of  it,  —  "  poor,  and  nasty,  and  short !  "  Ex- 
pect no  self-command  here  for  conscience'  or  affection's 
sake  ;  no  self-denial  to-day,  for  dear  and  lasting  delight 
to-morrow;  no  self-sacrifice  for  another's  joy  or  another's 
growth :  mutuality  of  selfishness  is  all ;  and  the  stronger 
selfishness  must  carry  the  day ;  and  that  is  the  ruin  of 
the  family.  No  family  life  of  joy  is  possible  without 
self-denial  on  all  sides.  The  wife  must  deny  herself 
for  the  husband ;  the  husband,  himself  for  the  wife  ;  the 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  53 

parent  for  the  child ;  kith  for  kin,  and  friend  for  friend. 
The  stronger  and  nearer  I  fold  another  to  my  bosom, 
the  nearer  and  stronger  is  the  demand  on  me  for  self- 
denial,  yea  for  self-sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  the  object  that 
my  arms  enfold. 

Now  there  is  much  partial  practical  atheism  which 
appears  in  this  domestic  form.  The  present  position 
of  woman  is  only  justified  on  the  ground  that  there  is  no 
God :  men  do  not  understand  it  as  yet ;  one  day  they 
surely  will.  Every  marriage  which  is  not  based  on  mu- 
tuality of  affection, — where  good  is  to  be  taken  and 
good  is  to  be  given,  and  man  and  wife  both  are  to  take 
and  both  are  to  give,  —  is  bottomed  at  last  on  practical 
atheism;  only  on  that.  The  other  day  I  said  it  was 
impossible  for  a  man  to  be  a  complete  speculative  athe- 
ist. It  is  impossible  for  him  to  be  a  complete  practical 
atheist.  But  grant  that  there  was  a  complete  practical 
atheistic  man,  and  a  complete  practical  atheistic  woman ; 
— would  marriage  be  possible  between  the  two  ?  By 
no  means !  Not  at  all  I  Juxtaposition  of  bodies  is  all 
that  would  take  place.  Selfishness  is  never  a  bond  of 
real  wedlock. 

Philosophers  in  the  last  century,  in  France,  thought 
that  the  Spider  had  not  yet  developed  all  its  economy, 
but  might  be  used  for  nice  purposes  of  fabric  and 
manufacture  amongst  men.  They  thought  they  could 
get  the  filament  of  a  web  finer  than  that  of  the  silk- 
worm's weaving,  out  from  the  spider's  mouth.  The 
spider  is  not  gregarious.  The  philosophers  gathered 
together  an  innumerable  host  of  the  insects  and  shut 
them  up  in  one  room,  and  left  them  to  their  weaving, 
feeding  them  with  flies  and  other  food  which  the  spi- 
der's appetite  longed  for.  After  a  few  days  there  was 
only  a  single  spider  left.     They  fought  with  each  other, 

5* 


54  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

and  slew  one  another,  till  the  king-spider  was  the  only- 
one  left,  and  selfishness  had  eat  itself  up. 

III.  See  how  practical  atheism  will  appear  in  a 
larger  form  of  action, —  the  Social  Form,  in  the  Neigh- 
borhood and  Community. 

The  normal  basis  of  society  is  first  the  gregarious  in- 
stinct, which  we  have  in  common  with  sheep  and  kine. 

Next,  comes  the  social  will,  which  is  peculiar  to  man, 
and  has  this  superiority  over  the  gregarious  instinct,  — 
it  is  to  join  men  together  in  such  a  way  that  the  indi- 
viduality of  each  shall  be  preserved,  while  the  sociality 
of  all  is  made  sure  of.  That  cannot  take  place  with 
the  animals;  and  for  this  reason,  —  because  they  are 
not  persons,  and  free  spiritual  individuality  does  not 
seem  of  so  much  value  among  sheep  and  kine  as 
amongst  men.  Each  particular  Ox  may  be  only  "  so 
much  of  the  ox-kind ; "  this  Bison  only  so  much  of  the 
bison-kind,  and  that  Buffalo  so  much  of  the  buffalo-kind ; 
and  the  individuality  of  either  is  of  no  great  value  for  the 
development  of  the  ox  or  the  ox-kind.  But  when  you 
come  to  man,  Thomas  is  one  man,  and  Oliver  is  another, 
and  Jason  is  a  third  ;  and  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  pre- 
serve the  free  spiritual  individuality  of  each  one  of  these 
as  the  individuality  of  the  whole  human  race.  There- 
fore this  social  will  must  so  control  the  gregarious  in- 
stinct that  the  individual  shall  be  kept  whole  while  so- 
ciality is  made  sure  of. 

Then  there  is  a  third  thing ;  namely,  the  religious  as- 
piration, which  desires  the  absolutely  true,  just,  and 
lovely ;  and  this  desire  can  only  be  brought  out  in  full 
action  in  the  company  or  society  of  men. 

Accordingly  in  a  normal  society  there  will  be,  first, 
individual  self-love,  seeking  to  develop  and  enjoy  itself: 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  55 

then  the  social  afFection,  seeking  to  delight  and  develop 
others  about  us ;  and  these  two  may  be  so  coordinated 
that  the  individual  is  kept  in  society,  and  the  mass  also 
is  developed  and  blessed  by  the  concurrent  desire  to 
enjoy  and  to  delight :  then  there  will  also  be  the  relig- 
ious love  of  God,  the  ideal  True,  Just,  Loving,  and 
Holy,  involving  as  it  does  the  religious  love  of  men. 
In  short,  that  will  be  a  society  shaped  by  the  Golden 
Rule. 

But  the  society  of  atheism  must  be  a  mutuality  of 
selfishness ;  a  society  of  bodies  without  souls ;  ruled  by 
selfishness,  not  conscious  affection;  for  an  earth  with- 
out a  heaven,  in  a  world  without  a  God ;  and  in  a 
world,  too,  without  actual  reverence,  which  comes  in- 
stinctively into  every  person  above  the  rank  of  the  idiot ; 
—  for  with  atheists  reverence  must  take  either  the  out- 
ward form  of  servility  and  baseness,  or  the  inward  form 
of  gross  self-esteem.  So  this  must  be  a  short-sighted 
selfishness,  which  lays  out  for  to-day,  but  never  lays  up 
for  to-morrow. 

Each  conjunction  of  selfishness  must  needs  be  a  battle. 
The  individual  is  a  warfare  of  contending  passions,  lust 
striving  against  acquisitiveness,  and  ambition  against 
amativeness.  The  family  must  be  a  warfare  of  men 
and  women  striving  for  mastery.  Society  must  be  a 
warfare  of  great  and  little,  of  cunning  and  foolish,  rich 
and  poor,  cultivated  and  ignorant,  —  contending  for 
mastery.  Amongst  all  these,  the  strong  passion  will 
carry  it  in  the  individual,  the  strong  person  in  the  family, 
and  the  strong  class  in  society  ;  and  therefore  no  peace 
is  at  all  possible  till  the  strong  passion  has  subdued  the 
weak  in  the  individual,  the  strong  man  the  weak  men 
in  the  family,  and  the  strong  class  has  got  its  heel  on 
the  throat  of  the  weak  class  in   society.     Then  there 


56  PEACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

will  be  unity,  and  the  conquering  passion  will  proclaim 
peace  where  it  has  made  a  solitude.  The  social  aim 
will  be  to  rule  over  others,  and  make  them  serve  you ; 
to  give  them  the  least  and  get  the  most  from  them ; 
and  then  he  will  be  thought  the  most  fortunate  man 
and  so  the  most  "  respectable  "  in  the  community,  and 
"  honorable  "  in  the  state,  who  does  the  least  service  for 
mankind,  and  gets  the  most  pay  and  the  most  power 
from  them.  Society  will  be  controlled  by  selfish  pro- 
pensities, not  moral  ideas,  affectional  feelings,  or  relig- 
ious aspirations  for  ideal  perfection. 

See  how  this  principle  will  work  practically  in  social 
affairs.  Such  is  the  distribution  of  faculties  amongst 
men  that  a  few  persons  always  control  the  mass  of  men. 
We  may  deny  this  because  we  are  Democrats,  but  it  is 
a  fact  which  everywhere  stares  us  in  the  face.  It  is  so 
with  gregarious  animals :  the  strong  barnyard-fowl  is 
always  cock  of  the  walk,  and  rules  the  roost  just  as  he 
will,  only  as  he  has  but  a  small  margin  of  individual 
oscillation,  little  individual  caprice,  he  rules  according  to 
the  law  of  his  nature,  not  the  caprice  of  his  will.  The 
actual  preponderance  of  the  few  men  over  the  many  has 
hitherto  prevailed  in  every  form  of  state  government, 
whether  it  be  called  a  despotism,  an  aristocracy,  or  a 
republic.  Six  hundred  men,  self-appointed  almost, 
meet  together  in  two  Conventions  at  Baltimore,  and 
select  two  men,  and  then  say  to  the  people,  —  "  One  of 
these  is  to  be  your  President  for  four  years."  And  the 
twenty  miUions  fling  up  their  caps  and  say  which  of  the 
two  it  shall  be ;  and  the  majority  thinks  it  has  made 
the  President.  If  the  conventions  had  selected  two 
notorious  kidnappers,  —  the  Philadelphia  kidnapper  on 
one  side,  and  the  Boston  kidnapper  on  the  other,  —  one 
of  these  would  as  assuredly  be  President  as  either  of  the 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  57 

actual  nominees  will  be.  This,  I  say,  is  so  at  present. 
It  is  a  fact  all  over  the  world,  in  Republics  as  well  as  in 
Despotisms.  The  political  "  democrat "  has  commonly 
been  also  a  despot. 

But  the  principle  on  which  atheistic  society  must 
needs  be  founded  will  be  that  of  mere  private  selfish- 
ness. So  all  the  rulers  must  of  necessity  be  tyrants, 
ruling  with  cruel  and  selfish  aims.  Oppression,  which 
is  a  Measure  in  the  practice  of  men,  must  be  also  a 
Principle  in  the  theory  of  the  atheist,  the  accidental 
actual  of  human  history  will  then  become  the  substan- 
tial ideal  of  human  nature.  The  most  appropriate  nom- 
ination in  that  case  would  be  the  nomination  of  the  kid- 
nappers. The  capitalist  wishes  to  operate  by  his 
money ;  that  is  his  tool  to  increase  his  power  of  selfish 
enjoyment.  The  operative  wishes  to  act  by  his  hand 
and  head  ;  these  are  his  tools  to  increase  his  power  of 
selfish  enjoyment.  But  both  must  be  thoroughly  selfish 
in  principle,  and  so  they  will  be  natural  and  irrecon- 
cilable enemies  waging  a  war  for  mutual  extermination. 
Accordingly  the  capitalist  will  aim  to  get  the  operatives' 
work  without  giving  them  his  money ;  and  the  opera- 
tives will  aim  to  get  the  capitalist's  money  without 
giving  him  their  work  ;  and  so  there  will  be  a  perpetual 
"  strike "  and  warfare  between  the  two,  each  contin- 
ually laying  at  the  other  with  all  his  might.  The  har- 
mony of  society  wiU  be  the  equilibrium  of  selfishness ; 
and  that  will  be  brought  about  when  the  strong  has 
crushed  down  the  weak,  has  got  him  under  his  foot  and 
has  destroyed  him.  Harmony  will  take  place  when  the 
last  spider  has  eaten  up  all  his  coadjutors.  The  social 
peace  of  atheism  is  solitude. 

In  trade  the  aim  wiU  be  to  accumulate  money,  —  no 
matter  how  it  is  got,  by  fraud,  by  Hes,  by  rack-rent  on 


58  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

houses,  by  ruinous  usury  on  land,  or  less  ruinous  piracy 
on  the  sea.  The  man  will  allow  nothing  to  stand  be- 
tween him  and  the  dollar  he  covets,  no  intellectual  idea, 
no  moral  principle,  no  afFectional  feeling,  no  religious 
emotion.  Mr.  New  England  is  greedy  for  money; 
Mr.  South  Carolina  greedy  for  slaves.  Mr.  New  Eng- 
land steals  men  in  Africa,  or  in  Massachusetts,  and 
sells  them  to  his  brother,  Mr.  South  Carolina,  getting 
great  pay.  You  say  to  both  of  these.  This  is  very 
wrong;  it  is  inhuman,  it  is  wicked.  But  the  atheists 
say,  "  What  do  we  know  about  right  and  wrong  ? " 
"  I  only  know,"  says  Mr.  New  England,  "  it  brings  me 
money."  "  I  only  know  it  brings  me  slaves,"  says  Mr. 
South  Carolina.  "  All  we  want  is  money  and  slaves." 
You  can  have  nothing  further  to  say  to  these  two  gen- 
tlemen. 

Mr.  Salem  sends  cargoes  of  rum  to  Africa,  and  when 
it  gets  there  dilutes  it  with  half  its  bulk  of  water,  drugs 
it  to  its  old  intoxicating  power,  and  then  sells  it  to  the 
black  man,  who  is  made  just  as  drunk,  and  a  little  more 
poisoned  than  if  he  had  the  genuine  article,  the  only 
thing  to  which  New  England  has  characteristically 
given  its  name.  He  sells  this  to  the  black  man,  and 
sells  him  also  powder  and  balls  to  use  in  capturing  his 
brother  men  ;  and  when  they  are  caught  he  "  prudently  " 
leaves  some  other  American  to  take  and  transport  them 
to  market  at  Rio,  or  Cuba,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
American  government.  You  say  to  Mr.  Salem,  This 
is  all  wicked.  "  What  do  I  care  for  that  ?  "  says  he. 
"  It  brings  me  very  good  money,  very  good  honor,  the 
first  respectability.  You  don't  think  it's  righteousness 
I  am  trading  for,  that  I  baptize  Negroes  with  poisoned 
rum  for  the  sake  of  their  '  Salvation ! '  I  leave  that 
matter  and  the  '  Justification  of  Slavery '  to  the  Chris- 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  59 

tian  clergy.  It  is  quite  enough  for  the  merchant  to 
make  slaves ;  I  leave  it  to  the  ministers  to  prove  it  is 
right.  You  think  I  am  aiming  at  '  Heaven,'  do  you  ? 
You  are  very  young,  Sir !  " 

But,  say  you,  you  are  false  to  your  natural  obligations 
to  do  right,  to  speak  true,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy. 
"  Obligations  of  that  sort!  "  adds  he,  "J  know  no  such 
obhgations.  This  is  consciousness  without  a  con- 
science." At  least  you  must  fear  the  judgment  passed 
against  wrong  in  the  next  life !  —  say  you,  almost  driven 
to  your  last  appeal.  "  But  I  know  no  next  life,"  says 
he ;  "  here  is  the  present  life  ;  I  am  sure  of  that."  But 
at  least  you  reverence  God  ?  "  Not  at  all,"  says  IVIr. 
Salem,  "  it  is  a  world  without  a  God  !  " 

If  a  man  starts  with  such  a  theory  of  the  universe,  and 
such  principles  of  practice,  what  can  you  say  to  him  ? 
Call  on  that  man  for  heroism  when  your  country  is  in 
danger,  and  he  creeps  under  the  oven.  CaU  on  him  for 
charity  when  the  country  is  starving,  and  he  sells  bread 
for  a  dollar  a  pound.  You  can  get  nothing  from  him 
but  selfishness.  An  atheistic  community  could  not 
build  a  free  School-house,  or  an  Alms-house,  or  a  Hos- 
pital, only  a  Jail.     Behold  atheism  carried  into  society ! 

Now,  as  I  said  the  other  day,  there  is  not  much  ac- 
knowledged speculative  atheism,  —  acknowledged  to 
one's  self,  —  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of  partial  practical 
atheism,  which  lets  houses  at  rack-rent,  to  the  ruin  of 
the  tenant ;  which  lets  money  at  rack-usury,  to  the  ruin 
of  the  borrower ;  sells  rum  to  the  ruin  of  the  buyer ;  it 
deals  falsely  in  honorable  goods,  —  there  may  be  as 
much  baseness  in  the  dealing,  as  danger  in  the  merchan- 
dise,—  and  then  with  the  profits  it  builds  up  great 
houses,  which  are   palaces  for   selfishness.     I  look   on 


bU  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

them  as  on  the  rude  hovels  of  the  buccaneers  of  Ja- 
maica and  the  Caribbees,  who  went  down  to  the  shore 
of  the  Spanish  main  and  murdered  the  crews  of  the 
ships  they  took,  and  then  carried  the  ships  to  port  and 
broke  them  to  pieces  to  build  up  their  own  houses  from 
the  fragments.  You  ask  these  men  to  forbear  from 
destroying  their,  brothers.  You  appeal  to  their  human- 
ity,—  and  they  are  true  to  their  practical  atheisn. 
You  appeal  to  justice, —  they  know  it  not;  to  respect 
for  conscience,  —  they  have  none  of  it ;  to  their  con- 
sciousness of  God,  —  they  recognize  no  such  thing. 
Tell  these  men  of  some  absolute  right,  of  their  immor- 
tal soul,  —  it  is  all  a  dream. 

Am  I  spealdng  mere  fictions  ?  When  Boston  had 
kidnapped  Thomas  Sims,  and  carried  him  away,  two 
members  of  a  Christian  church  in  this  city,  both  mer- 
chants, met  accidentally  in  its  chief  business  street,  and 
talked  the  matter  over.  Both  disliked  the  deed ;  but 
one  thus  justified  it,  and  said,  "  If  we  did  n't  do  this  we 
should  n't  get  any  more  trade  from  the  South,  and  I 
remember  we  have  got  to  live  here.^^  "  So  do  I,"  said 
the  other,  "  remember  we  have  got  to  live  hereafter^'' 
There  were  practical  atheism  and  practical  religion 
looking  one  another  in  the  face.  Boston  went  to  the 
side  of  practical  atheism,  as  you  know,  thinking,  as  her 
prominent  ministers  declared,  there  was  no  "  Higher 
Law." 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  social  practical  atheism 
which  appears  under  the  guise  and  with  the  name  of 
religion.  This  is  the  most  ghastly,  the  most  deadly 
kind.  It  is  concealed,  —  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing ;  still 
a  wolf,  and  his  jaws  are  there  under  the  innocent  covering 
of  the  lamb.     It  is  Satan  transformed  "  into  an  angel  of 


PRACTICAL    ATHEISM.  61 

light,"  but  still  the  old  devil,  spite  of  usurping  the 
angel's  wings.  The  more  consistent  atheist  will  join 
the  church. 

Here  is  an  example  of  that.  A  man  of  property  in 
this  city  dishonestly  failed ;  dishonestly,  and  yet  legally 
became  a  bankrupt;  paid  his  creditors  sixpence  or  a 
shiUing  on  the  dollar ;  and  secured  to  himself  consid- 
erable property,  getting  a  discharge  from  all  his  cred- 
itors except  one.  Afterwards  he  became  rich.  The 
poor  man  who  had  refused  to  compound  his  debt 
claimed  his  due.  The  rich  man  did  not  deny  that  it 
was  justly  due,  only  declared  it  was  not  legally  due. 
There  was  no  redress.  At  length  our  defaulting  debtor 
"  experienced  religion,"  as  they  say ;  —  I  call  it  experi- 
encing theology,  and  very  poor  theology  besides  ;  "  ex- 
perienced religion  "  at  one  of  the  sectarian  churches  of 
Boston,  — and  became  what  is  there  called  "  a  religious 
man ;  "  and  came  up  before  a  communion  table,  and  pro- 
fessed to  commune  with  God,  and  Christ,  and  Man, 
through  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine.  Our  poor 
creditor  goes  to  him  again,  and  says,  "  Now  I  hope  you 
wiU  pay  me,  since  you  have  become  a  *  religious  man ' 
and  have  joined  the  church."  Quoth  the  debtor,  "  Busi- 
ness is  business,  and  religion  is  reUgion.  Business  is 
for  the  week  and  religion  for  Sunday  "  —  and  paid  him 
not  a  cent.  There  was  social  practical  atheism  in  the 
guise  of  religion,  all  the  more  consistent  in  that  garb. 

Sometimes  practical  atheism  gets  into  the  pulpit  as 
well  as  the  pews,  and  then  it  is  tenfold  more  deadly ; 
for  it  poisons  the  wells  of  society,  and  next  diffuses  the 
contents  abroad  as  the  waters  of  life.  It  cries  out, 
"  Ho !  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  up  here  and  be 
comforted  in  your  sins.  Slavery  is  a  Christian  Institu- 
tion."    Ask  such  a  man,  of  that  denomination,  to  preach 


62  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

against  any  popular  wickedness  which  shakes  the  stee- 
ple over  his  head,  and  which  jars  the  great  Bible  on  his 
pulpit's  lid ;  ask  him  to  preach  against  wickedness  which 
turns  one  half  his  congregation  into  voluptuaries, — 
victims  of  passion,  —  and  the  other  half  into  hunkers,  — 
victims  of  ambition,  —  and  he  only  cries,  "  Save  us. 
Good  Lord  I "  Tell  him  of  some  noble  excellence  that 
is  going  abroad  into  society,  and  is  ready  to  be  struck 
down  by  the  wickedness  of  the  world,  and  ask  him  to 
speak  only  a  word  in  its  favor  over  the  cushions  of  his 
pulpit,  and  he  mumbles,  "  Miserable  Offenders !  Save 
us,  Good  Lord."     That  is  all  he  can  say. 

All  these  practically  deny  the  Higher  Law.  I  am 
not  speaking  of  momentary  errors.  You  all  know  I  am 
far  more  charitable  than  most  men  to  all  errors  of  that 
sort.  I  know  myself  how  easy  it  is  to  do  wrong ;  how 
many  depraved  things  may  be  done  without  any  de- 
pravity in  the  human  heart.  But  atheism  of  this  sort, 
disguised  or  undisguised,  —  I  cannot  express  the  abhor- 
rence and  loathing  that  I  feel  for  the  thing.  Offences 
are  one  thing,  but  the  theory  which  makes  offences  — 
that  is  the  baser  thing. 

Look  about  you  and  see  how  much  there  is,  however, 
of  practical  atheism  not  confessed  to  itself.  The  Sad- 
ducee  comes  forward  and  says,  "  There  is  no  Angel, 
nor  Resurrection  ;  "  and  men  cry  out  "  Atheist ! " 
"  Away  with  him  !  "  The  Pharisee  devours  widows' 
houses,  and  then  struts  into  the  temple,  drops  with 
brassy  ring  his  shekel  into  the  public  chest,  and  stands 
before  the  seven  golden  candlesticks  and  prays,  "  God, 
I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are,  extor- 
tioners, unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as  this  publican.  I 
fast  twice  in  the  week ;  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  pos- 
sess."    Men  cry  out,  "  This  is  a  Saint !  a  great  Chris- 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  63 

tian !  "  —  and  run  over  the  poor  widow  who  is  dropping 
into  the  alms-box  her  two  mites,  all  the  living  that  she 
has,  and  tread  her  down.  This  practical  social  atheism 
is  the  death  of  all  heroism,  all  manliness,  all  beauty,  all 
love. 

IV.  See  this  practical  atheism  in  the  Political  Form, 
in  the  Nation.  The  normal  motive  of  national  union 
is  the  gregarious  instinct  and  the  social  will,  acting  in 
their  larger  modes  of  operation,  and  joining  men  by- 
mutuality  of  interest,  and  mutuality  of  love.  This  is 
the  foundation  of  all  real  patriotism.  Then  the  union 
w^ill  be  for  the  sake  of  the  universal  good  of  all,  and  the 
particular  good  of  each.  National  institutions,  consti- 
tutions, and  statutes  will  be  the  result  of  a  national 
desire  for  what  is  useful  to-day,  and  for  what  is  abso- 
lutely true,  just,  lovely,  and  holy.  There  will  be  a  co- 
ordination of  the  particular  desire  of  Thomas  and  Jane, 
each  seeking  his  own  special  good  in  the  action  of  per- 
sonal self-love ;  and  of  the  general  desire  of  the  nation 
seeking  the  united  good  of  all  in  the  joint  action  of  self- 
love  and  of  benevolence.  All  of  this  let  me  represent 
by  one  word.  Justice,  a  symbol  alike  of  the  transient 
and  eternal  interests  of  both  all  and  each.  AU  national 
statutes  will  come  from  the  conscience  of  the  nation, 
which  aims  to  make  them  so  as  to  conform  with  the 
conscience  of  God,  as  that  is  shown  in  the  constitution 
of  the  Universe,  in  the  unchanging  law^s  of  Human 
Nature,  which  represent  the  Justice  and  the  Love  of 
God.  Then  every  statute  will  be  a  part  of  the  intrinsic 
law  of  human  nature  writ  out  in  human  speech,  and 
laid  down  as  a  rule  of  conduct  for  men.  Every  such 
statute  will  be  human  and  conventional  in  its  form,  but 
yet  divine  and  absolute  in  its  substance,  as  all  true  sci- 


64  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

ence  is  the  divine  and  absolute  Fact  of  Nature  ex- 
pressed in  human  speech.  Then  the  reason  for  obeying 
the  human  statutes  will  be  the  natural  obligation  to 
speak  true,  do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy ;  for  so  far 
as  the  statutes  of  men  represent  the  natural  law  of  God, 
obedience  is  moral,  and  it  is  obligatory  on  all  to  observe 
them ;  but  beyond  this  point  obedience  to  those  stat- 
utes is  obligatory  on  no  man,  but  is  immoral,  unmanly, 
and  wicked. 

But  the  politics  of  practical  atheism  must  be  based 
on  selfishness.  As  selfishness  obtains  in  the  individual, 
establishing  a  personal  anarchy  of  desires ;  in  the  family, 
establishing  a  domestic  anarchy  of  its  members  ;  in  the 
community,  establishing  a  social  anarchy  in  the  classes 
thereof;  so  it  must  prevail  in  the  state,  establishing  a 
national  anarchy  in  its  various  parts.  Political  moral- 
ity is  impossible  in  the  atheistic  state  ;  there  can  be 
only  political  economy,  which  aims  to  provide  merely 
for  the  selfishness  of  men.  For  by  this  hypothesis, 
there  is  a  body  without  a  soul,  a  here  but  no  hereafter, 
a  world  without  a  God.  Men  mil  be  consciously  held 
together,  in  a  negative  manner,  by  the  mutual  and  uni- 
versal repulsion  of  selfishness,  not  at  all,  positively,  by 
the  mutual  and  universal  attraction  of  Justice.  All 
men  will  be  natural  enemies,  joined  by  mutual  hatred, 
huddled  together  by  Want  and  Fear. 

Government  is  a  contrivance  whereby  a  few  men 
control  the  rest.  In  a  democracy,  the  majority  of  the 
people  determine  what  great  or  little  man  shall  perform 
this  function ;  or  rather  they  think  they  determine  this, 
and  at  least  can  say  who  shall  not  officially  attempt 
this  function.  In  a  despotism  the  majority  have  not 
that  privilege  —  but  the  great  or  little  man  himself  de- 
termines who  shall  control  the  nation.     In  the  state  of 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  65 

practical  atheism,  in  either  case,  the  government  must 
be  one  of  selfishness  —  the  controlling  power  seeldng 
the  most  for  itself  and  the  least  for  the  people.  So  the 
government  will  be  a  tyranny,  representing  only  the 
selfishness  of  the  ruling  power.  In  aU  cases  the  appeal 
must  be  to  Superior  Force  —  to  that  as  the  proximate 
appeal,  to  that  the  ultimate.  Now  it  will  be  Force  of 
Body,  then  Force  of  Cunning.  The  government  may 
assume  various  forms,  —  the  controlling  power  may  be 
a  king,  a  monarchy  of  selfishness ;  a  few  great  families, 
an  aristocracy  of  selfishness ;  or  the  majority,  a  democ- 
racy of  selfishness :  but  the  substance  is  stiU  the  same, 
—  tyranny  and  despotism,  subjecting  the  world  to  mon- 
archic, aristocratic,  or  democratic  force  ;  a  rule  of  the 
strong  over  the  weak,  and  against  the  transient  and  per- 
manent interests  of  the  weak.  To  the  individual  whose 
natural  rights  are  destroyed,  it  is  of  smaU  consequence 
whether  the  destroyer  is  single-headed,  several-headed, 
or  many-headed.  Political  atheism  in  one,  in  few,  or 
in  many,  is  still  the  same. 

Special  maxims  and  special  aims  will  vary  wdth 
special  forms  of  government.  Is  the  controlling  power 
a  monarch,  he  will  say,  "  The  Idng  can  do  no  wrong," 
and  above  aU  things  will  aim  to  protect  the  conven- 
tional privilege  of  kings.  Is  it  an  aristocracy  of  long 
descent,  the  maxim  will  be,  "  Birth  before  Merit ; "  "  the 
nobihty  cannot  err."  They  will  make  all  the  power  of 
the  people  serve  to  rock  the  cradle  for  men  of  famous 
line,  scorning  the  common  mortal's  "puddle-blood." 
Is  it  a  company  of  capitalists,  the  maxim  will  be 
"  Property,  before  persons  ;  "  "  let  the  State  take  care  of 
the  rich,  and  they  will  take  care  of  the  people ;  "  "  money 
can  do  no  wrong."  They  will  aim  to  oppress  the  poor 
and  make  them  servants,  serfs,  or  slaves.     Is  it  the  mob 

6* 


66  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

of  proletaries,  "  Property  is  theft ;  "  "  the  majority  can 
do  no  wrong ;  "  "  Minorities  have  no  rights,"  will  be  the 
maxim,  and  to  plunder  the  rich  the  aim. 

Political  atheism  is  the  exploitation  of  the  people,  — 
by  the  selfishness  of  the  king,  the  nobles,  or  the  majority; 
all  right  must  yield  to  might.  There  is  no  moral  ele- 
ment in  the  laws — in  making,  administering,  or  obeying 
them ;  for  atheism  itself  knows  no  obligation,  no  duty, 
no  right,  only  force  and  desire.  All  government  is  a 
reign  of  terror. 

In  the  atheistic  state  there  must  be  another  class. 
As  the  formal  negation  of  atheism,  and  the  affirmation 
of  the  opposite  thereof,  is  one  form  of  its  practical  pro- 
fession, so  the  Priesthood  of  Atheism,  an  atheistic  clergy, 
is  philosophically  as  possible,  and  historically  as  real, 
as  the  monarchy,  the  aristocracy,  or  the  democracy  of 
atheism.  The  clergy  will  be  the  ally  of  the  tyrant,  the 
enemy  of  the  oppressed,  of  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the 
servant,  the  serf,  the  slave.  In  the  name  of  the  Soul 
which  it  rejects,  of  the  Hereafter  which  it  denies,  of  the 
God  whom  it  derides,  the  Atheistic  Church  will  declare, 
"  There  is  no  law  above  the  pleasure  of  King  Monarch, 
or  King  Many.  Obey  or  be  damned."  So  in  the 
atheistic  state  the  atheistic  church  will  be  supple  to 
the  master,  and  hate  the  slave;  will  cringe  to  power, 
and  abhor  all  which  appeals  to  the  Eternal  Right ;  will 
love  empire,  and  hate  piety.  Now  it  will  praise  royalty, 
now  nobility,  now  riches,  now  numbers,  claiming  always 
that  the  actual  power  holds  by  divine  right ;  quoting 
Scripture  to  show  it.  This  is  the  most  odious  form 
of  practical  political  atheism,  —  the  negation  of  itself, 
the  affirmation  of  its  opposite ;  crushing  man  while  it 
whines  out  its  litany  —  "  Save  us,  good  Lord,  miserable 
ofTenders." 


PEACTICAL  ATHEISM.  67 

Hobbes  of  Malmesbury,  was  right  when  he  said 
"  Atheism  is  the  best  ally  of  despotism,"  for  it  denies 
the  reality  of  Justice ;  takes  Conscience  out  of  human 
consciousness,  the  soul  out  of  the  body,  Hereafter  away 
from  here,  and  dismisses  God  from  the  universe  — 
selfishness  the  only  motive,  force  the  last  appeal.  That 
politician  was  a  crafty  man  who  said  of  religion  —  "  in 
politics  it  makes  men  mad,"  for  it  bids  them  speak  true, 
do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy  against  the  consent  of 
governments  when  they  stand  in  its  way.  Alexander 
at  a  feast  slew  Clitus,  both  drunk  with  Bacchic  wine. 
One  of  the  flatterers,  not  drunk  but  sober,  said  "  It  is 
all  right ;  there  is  no  law  above  the  king ! "  That  was 
practical  political  atheism  —  the  sober  flatterer  exalting 
a  drunken  murderer  above  the  eternal  God ;  the  excep- 
tional measure  of  a  king,  raging  with  wine  and  anger, 
was  made  a  universal  principle  for  all  time. 

Here  in  this  nation  there  is  much  partial  practical 
atheism  in  the  political  form.  Look  at  the  corruption, 
the  bribery  of  eminent  men,  sometimes  detected,  ac- 
knowledged, and  vindicated ;  at  the  conduct  of  political 
parties,  no  one  seeking  to  govern  the  nation  for  the 
joint  good  of  aU  the  citizens,  only  for  the  peculiar 
good  of  the  party  in  power;  at  the  tyranny  of  the 
majority,  striking  down  the  obvious  right  of  the 
lesser  number ;  at  three  million  men  made  slaves  by 
the  people  of  America:  —  what  is  it  all  but  partial 
practical  atheism  ?  I  am  glad  political  men  boldly 
declare  the  speculative  principle  which  lies  at  the  basis 
of  their  practical  measures  and  tell  the  people,  "  There 
is  no  Natural  Law  above  the  statutes  which  men 
enact : "  no  God  above  King  Monarch,  or  King  Many. 
I  am  glad  they  "  define  their  position,"  all  atheistic  as 


68  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

it  is.  Look  at  the  political  and  clerical  defences  of  the 
most  enormous  public  wickedness,  and  you  see  how 
deep  this  practical  atheism  has  gone  down  into  the 
people,  how  widely  it  has  spread.  But  the  hope  which 
I  have  for  this  nation  is  built  on  the  Character  Of  God, 
and  on  the  consciousness  of  God  in  the  people's  heart. 

V.  You  may  see  how  practical  atheism  n;iust  work 
in  the  form  of  General  Human  Life,  the  Life  of  the 
Human  Race  taken  as  a  whole.  Mankind  is  a  Family 
of  Nations,  amenable  to  the  constitution  of  the  universe, 
and  normally  to  be  ruled  by  the  laws  of  human  nature, 
by  Justice,  —  by  the  moral  obligation  to  speak  true,  to 
do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy.  As  the  members  in 
the  body  form  a  harmonious  person ;  as  the  individuals 
in  a  house  form  a  harmonious  family ;  as  the  families 
in  society  form  a  harmonious  community ;  as  the  com- 
munities in  a  nation  form  a  harmonious  state ;  so  the 
nations  in  the  earth  are  to  form  a  harmonious  World, 
with  human  unity  of  action  for  all,  with  national  variety 
of  action  for  each  state,  social  variety  of  action  for  each 
community,  domestic  for  each  family,  and  individual 
for  each  person.  Justice  is  to  be  the  rule  of  conduct 
for  individual,  domestic,  social,  national,  and  general 
human  conduct.  Thus  the  ideal  of  human  life  in  these 
five  forms  will  be  attained  and  made  actual. 

But  practical  atheism  makes  selfishness,  material 
selfishness,  the  motive,  and  material  desire  the  rule  of 
conduct  for  the  nations  which  make  up  the  world,  as 
for  communities  which  compose  the  state,  or  for  persons 
who  join  in  families.  So  the  World  of  atheism,  like 
its  state,  society,  family,  and  man,  must  be  only  an 
anarchy  of  conflicting  elements,  the  strong  plundering, 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  69 

enslaving,  or  killing  the  weak.  The  proximate  and 
ultimate  appeal  wUl  be  to  force,  now  force  of  body, 
then  force  of  brain. 

Here  I  will  not  repeat  what  I  have  said  before  in 
another  form;  but  practical  atheism  will  do  on  the 
large  scale  for  the  world  what  it  did  on  the  small  in 
the  state,  community,  and  home.  Each  nation  \\dll  be 
deemed  its  own  exclusive  cause,  its  own  sustainer, 
director,  mind,  and  providence.  "  There  is  no  law  of 
God  above  the  nation's  will,"  says  the  Atheist ;  "  no 
God  above  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  Let  us  bite  and 
devour  one  another." 

There  is  much  practical  atheism  of  this  form  in  the 
world.  See  how  Russia  oppresses  the  feebler  nations 
of  the  East  and  West.  See  how  this  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe,  with  its  American  and  its  British  head, 
invades  the  other  feeble  nations,  —  the  yellow  men  in 
Asia  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  the  red  men  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  black  men  in  Africa.  It  is  only  practical 
atheism  which  in  England  justifies  her  treatment  of 
Ireland,  of  India,  China,  Africa,  and  yet  other  re- 
gions of  the  world :  in  America  it  is  only  by  practical 
atheism  that  we  can  vindicate  our  treatment  of  the 
Mexican  and  the  Spaniard ;  still  more  of  the  red  man 
and  the  black.  Atheism  bids  the  powerful  exploiter  the 
weak  —  now  with  the  sword  alone  —  the  heathen  way 
of  Rome ;  now  with  commerce  and  the  sword  —  the 
Christian  way  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

I  would  gladly  say  much  more  that  burns  in  my 
bosom  to  be  spoken,  respecting  atheism  in  its  Political 
and  General  Human  Form,  atheism  making  laws,  athe- 
ism crushing  down  the  people.  I  would  gladly  show 
how  this  manifests  itself  in  wicked  wars.  1  could 
never  look  on  an  army  invading  another  country  to  do 


70  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

it  wrong,  without  asking,  "  Are  the  men  who  send  the 
army  abroad  atheists  before  men,  as  well  as  before 
God  ?  "  I  would  gladly  speak  of  this  in  its  Universal 
Form,  —  arraying  nation  against  nation,  making  the 
strong  tread  down  the  weak.  But  yonder  silent  finger 
warns  me  that  I  must  not  trespass  too  long. 


Speculative  atheism  is  a  thing  human  nature  revolts 
at.  So  of  speculative  atheists,  w^ho  have  a  full  con- 
sciousness of  complete  atheism,  there  are  at  most  but 
few  ;  I  think  not  one.  Practical  atheism  would  be  just 
as  impossible,  if  one  could  be  thoroughly  conscious 
thereof.  But  without  knowing  it,  there  are  men  who 
thus  act,  and  move,  and  live,  and  have  their  being,  as 
if  there  were  no  God  ;  as  if  man  had  no  soul ;  as  if  there 
was  no  special  obligation  to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to 
feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy.  But  there  are  many  depraved 
things  done  which  indicate  no  depravity  in  the  man — 
excesses  of  instinct  not  yet  understood,  errors  of  passion 
untamed  as  yet,  nay  of  ambition,  not  knowing  itself. 
But  there  are  depraved  things  which  come  out  of  con- 
scious and  systematic  wickedness,  —  the  deliberate 
frauds  of  theology  and  trade,  and  the  confessed  wrong 
in  domestic,  social,  national,  and  general  human  life. 
These  are  the  fruits  of  practical  atheism,  though  the 
man  knows  not  what  tree  it  is  which  bears  them. 


We  see  atheism  in  two  forms :  One  speculative,  de- 
nying that  there  is  any  God.  I  shudder  at  that.  I  see 
men  of  large  culture  attempting  to  found  schools  of 
speculative  atheism  in  this  land.  My  bosom  burns 
with  pity  and  love  for  those  men.     Others  may  throw 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  71 

stones  at  them ;  I  shall  throw  none.  Abuse  enough 
from  every  hireling  clergyman  they  will  have,  and  every 
unreasonable  sect;  they  shall  have  no  abuse  from  my 
lips ;  for  I  see  how  the  creed  and  the  conduct  of  the 
churches  of  our  land,  and  of  the  Christian  world,  have 
helped  drive  these  men  to  their  speculative  atheism. 
Yet  I  am  bound  to  warn  every  man  against  this ; 
against  its  beginning,  for  at  first  there  is  something 
rather  attractive  in  the  freedom  of  thought  which  it 
allows.  Let  us  have  all  that  freedom  of  thought  and 
exercise  every  faculty  of  the  intellect,  and  never  fear. 
Little  thought  stops  at  Atheism ;  much  thought  does 
not  turn  out  of  the  way  in  that  direction ;  or  if  it  do,  it 
comes  rounding  home,  and  so  returns  to  God. 

But  I  see  practical  atheism  far  more  abundant,  and 
far  more  dangerous;  by  deeds,  men  denying  there  is 
any  God,  any  soul,  any  everlasting  life,  any  obligation 
to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy. 
This  is  a  sad  sight. 

Speculative  Atheism  sits  down,  as  I  said  last  Sun- 
day, on  the  shore  of  Time,  and  the  stream  of  Human 
History  runs  by,  bearing  the  various  civilizations, — 
Egyptian,  East  Indian,  Chaldean,  Grecian,  Roman ; 
each  seems  a  bubble,  though  it  contains  the  birth  and 
life,  the  groans  unheard,  the  virtue  unrewarded,  the 
prayers  unanswered,  of  millions  of  millions  of  men. 
Yet  the  remorseless  stream,  which  comes  from  no 
whence,  and  goes  to  no  whither,  swallows  all  these  down, 
—  love  unrequited,  heroism  not  paid,  virtue  unrewarded. 

Practical  Atheism  does  not  sit  down  in  this  way ;  it 
goes  out  into  the  storm  and  tumult  of  active  life,  and 
there  it  stands,  this  Cerberus  of  selfishness,  with  its 
three  heads;  —  Lust,  which  hungers  and  barks  after 
pleasure ;  Ambition,  that  thirsts  for  fame  and  power ; 


72  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

and  Avarice,  which  is  greedier  than  all  the  rest.  And 
this  monster  of  three  heads  stands  there,  making  havoc 
of  the  individual,  the  family,  the  community,  the  church, 
the  nation,  and  the  world. 

But,  thanks  be  to  Almighty  God!  not  only  is  the 
religious  element  so  strong  in  us,  but  the  moral  and 
afFectional  are  so  powerful,  the  intellectual  so  mighty, 
that  human  nature  must  stop  a  great  ways  this  side  of 
complete  Atheism.  A  body  without  a  soul,  a  here  but 
no  hereafter,  a  history  without  a  plan,  an  earth  without 
a  heaven,  a  universe  but  no  God  —  no  man  can  have  a 
realizing  sense  of  it  and  live.  Only  let  us  be  warned  in 
season,  and  freely  develop  the  moral,  affectional,  and 
religious  faculties,  and  have  their  blest  reward. 


SERMON   III. 

OF  THE  POPUIiAR  THEOLOGY,  AS  THEORY 
7  (78> 


MATTHEW    XV.  9. 

TEACHING   FOR   DOCTRINES   THE    COMMAND3IENTS    OF   MEN. 

(74) 


Ill 


OF  THE    POPULAR    THEOLOGY    OF    CHRISTENDOM, 
REGARDED  AS   A   THEORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


On  the  last  two  Sundays  I  spoke  of  Atheism.  First 
of  Atheism  as  Philosophy,  —  a  theory  of  the  universe  ; 
and  next  of  atheism  as  Ethics  —  a  principle  of  prac- 
tical life.  To-day  I  ask  your  attention  to  a  sermon 
of  the  Popular  Theology  of  Christendom,  regarded  as 
Philosophy,  a  theory  of  the  universe  ;  and  next  Sun- 
day I  hope  to  speak  of  it  as  Ethics,  a  principle  of 
practice. 

From  the  beginning  of  human  history  there  has  been 
a  progressive  development  of  all  the  higher  faculties  of 
man  ;  of  the  religious  powers,  which  connect  man  with 
God,  as  well  as  of  the  other  faculties,  which  connect 
man  with  the  material  universe  and  men  with  one 
another.  There  has  been  a  progress  in  Piety,  in  Moral- 
ity, and  in  the  Theories  of  these  two.  Of  course,  then, 
there  has  been  a  progress  in  the  visible  results  of  this 
development  of  the  religious  faculties.  The  progress 
appears  in  the  rise,  decline,  and  disappearance  of  vari- 
ous forms  of  religion.  Each  of  these  has  been  neces- 
sary to  the  welfare  of  the  human  race  ;  for  at  one  time 

(75) 


78  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

then  the  Mosaic  worship  of  Jehovah ;  and  now  the 
most  enlightened  portion  thereof  have  come  to  what  is 
called  "  Christianity."  That  is  the  form  of  religion 
which  they  have  reached  to-day.  Shall  we  stop  with 
the  present  form  of  religion  called  "  Christianity  ? " 
Mankind  never  surrenders  to  time.  There  is  a  progress 
in  what  is  called  Christianity,  a  continual  change  of  the 
thing,  though  the  name  abides  the  same.  Protestant- 
ism is  clearly,  on  the  whole,  a  step  in  advance  of  Ca- 
tholicism —  and  Protestantism  has  advanced  very  much 
since  the  death  of  Martin  Luther.  A  change  is  going 
on  at  this  day  within  Catholicism  and  Protestantism. 

What  is  called  Christianity  embraces  three  things, 
namely :  first  Sentiments,  next  Ideas,  and  third  Actions. 
It  is  chiefly  of  the  Ideas  that  I  shall  speak  to-day. 
These  Ideas  united  together  I  shall  call  the  Popular 
Theology. 

This  Popular  Theology  is  not  wholly  nor  in  chief  the 
work  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  of  his  immediate  follow- 
ers ;  for,  though  called  by  his  name,  it  is  no  more  his 
production  than  modern  philosophy  is  the  production  of 
Socrates,  or  modern  medicine  the  production  of  Galen. 
What  is  called  Christianity  in  this  sense,  —  the  Popular 
Theology  I  mean,  —  is  the  result  of  the  rehgious  and 
philosophical  development  of  mankind  up  to  this  day. 
The  development  of  mankind  —  in  matters  pertaining 
to  the  sentiment  of  religion,  the  idea  of  rehgion,  the 
practice  of  religion,  —  has  gone  on  a  great  deal  more 
rapidly  since  the  time  of  Jesus  than  before  or  at  his 
time.  The  change  which  is  now  taking  place  in  the 
religious  world  —  the  change  in  the  sentiments  of  relig- 
ion, the  ideas  of  religion,  and  the  actions  of  religion  — 
is  greater  by  far  than  the  change  from  Judaism  or  Hea- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  79 

thenism  to  the  Christianity  of  Paul  and  Tertullian.  I 
mean  to  say  distinctly  that  between  the  Ideas  of  the 
foremost  religious  men  of  this  age  and  the  popular  the- 
ology of  the  churches,  there  is  a  greater  chasm,  a  wider 
and  deeper  gulf,  than  there  was  between  the  ideas  of 
Saint  Paul  or  Tertullian  and  those  of  the  Jews  and  Pa- 
gans who  were  around  them. 

If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  to  come  back  and  preach 
his  ideas  of  theology  as  he  set  them  forth  in  Judea,  they 
would  not  be  accepted  as  Christianity.  I  think  no  one 
of  the  apostles  even  would  be  thought  Christian  in  any 
church  in  the  world.  For,  first,  there  has  been  a  real 
progress  of  mankind  since  their  day ;  and  the  average 
preachers  have  dropped  some  errors  of  the  apostles,  and 
have  got  some  new  truths  pertaining  to  the  sentiment, 
the  idea,  and  the  action  of  religion ;  and  thus  there  has 
been  a  real  progress  in  religious  growth. 

But  then  again  there  has  been  a  change  without  any 
progress,  as  well  as  a  change  with  progi*ess ;  and  the 
caprice  of  individuals  of  to-day  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  caprice  of  the  individuals  who  lived  ten,  twelve,  or 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago  —  one  error  taking  the  place 
of  another.  A  change  of  caprice  does  not  always  indi- 
cate a  progress  ;  but  the  acceptance  of  new  truths  —  of 
sentiment,  of  idea,  and  of  action, —  does  represent  a  real 
progress. 

This  progress  has  been  influenced  very  much  by  the 
genius  of  certain  great  men,  some  of  them  remarkable 
for  feelings  of  piety,  some  for  ideas  of  philosophy,  some 
for  actions  of  philanthropy.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  had 
an  immense  influence  in  giving  mankind  a  start  in  the 
direction  which  has  been  taken  since  his  time.  When 
he  declared  that  love  of  God  and  love  of  Man  was  the 
sum  of  human  duty  to  God  and  to  man,  then  he  made 


80  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

a  statement  which  can  never  be  gainsaid,  nor  tran- 
scended, for  in  that  he  came  upon  the  eternal  substance 
of  religion.  That  idea  can  no  more  fade  out  of  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  of  mankind  than  the  multipHca- 
tion  table  be  dispensed  with  in  Mathematics,  the  Alpha 
bet  in  Literature,  or  the  continent  of  America  fail  and 
be  left  out  of  the  Geographies  which  describe  the  Earth. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  appears  to  have  summed  up  religion 
in  these  two  things,  namely,  —  in  Piety,  the  love  of 
God;  and  Morality,  the  keeping  of  the  laws  of  God, 
and  especially  in  keeping  the  law  which  commands  us 
to  love  our  brother  as  ourselves.  But  that  is  at  the 
present  day  thought  to  be  a  very  small  part  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  it  is  thought  in  all  the  great  sects,  Cath- 
olic or  Protestant,  to  be  the  least  important  part  thereof. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  think  Jesus  had  a  com- 
plete and  analytic  comprehension  of  all  which  is  in- 
cluded in  his  own  words,  nor  that  he  did  not  demand 
other  things  inconsistent  therewith,  only  that  he  made 
Love  to  God  and  Man,  the  chief  thing  in  his  religious 
teaching.  I  make  a  distinction  between  his  theology 
and  his  religion.  His  theology  seems  to  have  had  many 
Jewish  notions  in  it,  wholly  untenable  in  our  day,  though 
commonly  accepted  by  wise  men  in  his.  It  was  in  his 
religion  that  he  surpassed  his  age. 

K  any  one  of  the  gospels,  or  if  all  of  them  represent 
his  thoughts  correctly,  then  his  theology  contained  a 
considerable  mixture  of  error,  which  indeed  is  obvious 
to  any  man  who  will  read  those  records  without  pre- 
judice. With  those  works  in  our  hands  it  would  be 
absurd  to  maintain  that  Jesus  entertained  no  theolog- 
ical error,  in  matters  of  importance ;  that  he  had  all 
theologic  truth ;  or  all  the  theologio  truth  known  to  any 
or   all   persons  of  his  own  time.     From   the   time  of 


THE    POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  81 

Moses  to  Jesus  there  was  a  large  intellectual  and  relig- 
ious development  of  mankind,  a  marked  progress  in  the 
religious  sentiments,  ideas,  and  actions  of  individual 
men,  and  of  the  leading  nations  of  mankind.  From  the 
time  of  Jesus  to  our  time  this  progress,  both  in  indi- 
viduals and  in  nations,  has  been  yet  more  rapid.  Old 
errors  have  been  cast  away,  new  truths  have  been  added 
to  the  consciousness  of  mankind.  The  theology  of  the 
most  eminent  CathoUcs  or  Protestants  at  this  day  rep- 
resents the  thought  of  Jesus  as  it  appears  in  the  oldest 
of  the  four  Gospels,  no  more  than  a  common  plough 
represents  the  thought  of  the  man  who  first  broke  up 
ground  with  oxen.  No  man  is  so  great  as  mankind. 
If  the  great  genius  at  first  is  so  far  before  his  brothers 
as  to  be  incomprehensible,  by  and  by  they  overtake  him, 
pass  by  him,  and  go  still  further  on  till  they  become  in- 
comprehensible to  the  man  who  stands  where  the  genius 
once  stood.  I  know  it  is  thought  very  wicked  to  say 
this  in  its  application  to  the  historical  development  of 
religion,  as  it  would  be  thought  very  foolish  to  deny  it 
in  its  application  to  the  historical  development  of 
agriculture,  manufactures,  or  commerce,  to  any  science, 
to  any  art.  Every  great  genius  for  religion  will  add 
new  facts  to  the  world's  experience  of  religion,  just  as 
much  since  the  death  of  Jesus  as  before  his  time.  The 
road  is  easier  after  a  saint  has  trod  it,  and  no  saint 
travels  the  whole  length  thereof. 


IjOoIv  at  the  Ideas  of  Christendom,  the  doctrines. 
There  is  one  great  scheme  of  doctrines  caUed  "  Chris- 
tian Theology."  It  contains  some  things  held  in  com- 
mon with  every  other  system  of  theology  that  has  ever 
been ;  they  are  the  generic  element  of  the  popular  the- 


82  .  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

ology.  Then  it  contains  likewise  other  things  peculiar 
to  itself,  which  do  not  belong  to  any  other  form  of  relig- 
ion ;  these  are  the  specific  element  of  the  popular  the- 
ology. The  first  denote  the  agreement  thereof  with 
other  schemes  of  theology,  and  the  next  its  difference 
therefrom. 

This  great  scheme  of  theology  is  common  to  all 
Christendom  as  a  whole,  with  few  individual  exceptions. 
The  Christians  in  general  agree  in  a  belief  of  this  com- 
mon theology,  and  are  thereby  distinguished  from  men 
of  all  other  modes  of  religion.  The  Protestant  has 
departed  from  the  Catholic  theology  a  little,  separating 
therefrom  on  the  question  of  the  authority  and  functions 
of  the  Church  — the  Protestant  affirming  the  power  of 
the  individual  as  against  the  power  of  the  great  body 
of  Christians.  The  Unitarian  has  separated  from  other 
Protestants  in  his  doctrine  as  to  the  arithmetic  of  the 
Godhead,  reducing  the  deity  to  one  denomination,  in- 
stead of  three  which  the  Trinitarians  affirm.  The  Uni- 
versalist  differs  from  the  rest  in  his  doctrine  of  the  final 
destination  of  man.  But  still  the  great  "  body  of  divin- 
ity,"—  the  mass  of  doctrines  called  "  Christian  theol- 
ogy," and  "  Christianity," — has  escaped  untouched,  at 
least  unhurt  by  Protestants,  —  Unitarians  or  Univer- 
sahsts.  So  Protestants  and  Catholics,  Unitarians  and 
Trinitarians,  Universalists  and  Partialists,  agree  in  the 
main  parts  of  their  theology:  they  all  substantially 
unite  in  their  idea  of  God,  their  idea  of  Man,  and  their 
idea  of  the  Relation  between  God  and  Man.  The  root 
is  the  same,  the  trunk  the  same,  the  fruit  the  same  in 
kind,  only  the  branches  are  unlike  in  their  form,  and 
direction. 

Some  of  these  doctrines,  called  Christian,  were  old 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  83 

at  the  time  of  Jesus ;  some  were  new  at  that  time : 
—  some  of  these  latter  were,  doubtless,  added  by  Jesus 
himself ;  others  by  his  followers ;  —  a  great  many  have 
been  added  since  that  age,  taken  either  from  the  tran- 
sient caprice  of  men,  or  from  the  permanent  truths 
which  man  has  arrived  at. 

Take  an  example  of  the  doctrines  since  formed  out 
of  the  transient  caprice  of  men,  and  then  regarded  as 
Christian. 

First  it  was  declared  that  the  "immaculate  concep- 
tion," the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  should  be  a  doc- 
trine of  the  Church.  This  has  become  fixed  in  the 
Chiu'ch,  and  there  has  been  no  sect  for  sixteen  hundred 
years  at  least,  venturing  to  deny  it.  All  sects,  even  in- 
cluding the  Unitarian  and  Universalist,  affirm  the  super 
natural  birth  of  Jesus  —  that  he  had  no  human  father ; 
or  are  supposed  to  affirm  it,  stoutly  enough  denouncing 
such  as  doubt  or  deny  it. 

Then  men  went  further  and  affirmed  the  supernatural 
birth  of  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus ;  and,  after  twelve 
or  thirteen  hundred  years,  that  became  a  doctrine  fixed 
in  the  Catholic  Church  which  had  two  "immaculate 
conceptions."  But  at  the  Reformation  the  Protestant 
churches  rejected  this  latter  doctrine  with  all  their  might, 
staving  it  off  with  both  hands,  thinking  it  as  great  an 
error  to  believe  the  supernatural  birth  of  the  mother  as 
to  doubt  that  of  the  son. 

Men  did  not  stop  there ;  they  went  further,  and 
presently  declared  the  supernatural  birth  of  the  Mother 
of  Mary  to  be  an  essential  doctrine,  —  and  they  called 
that  mother  Anna.  That  idea  is  now  in  the  process 
of  fixation ;  it  is  getting  formulated,  —  to  use  a  philo- 
sophical phrase.  That  is  to  say,  it  has  been  accepted 
by  a  portion  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  and  some  of  the 


84  THE   POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

leaders  are  now  insisting  that  it  shall  become  a  fixed 
doctrine,  a  point  of  Catholic  theology  which  all  are  to 
believe,  or  "  perish  everlastingly." 

This  process  of  doctrinization  by  caprice  may  go 
on  ;  there  is  no  reason  it  should  stop  here.  By  and  by 
it  may  be  said  that  the  Grandmother,  the  Great-grand- 
mother, and  the  Great-great-grandmother  were  all  born 
supernaturally ;  and  then  in  addition  to  Anna,  the 
fictitious  mother  of  Mary,  there  may  be  a  Joanna,  a 
Rosanna,  a  Roxanna,  and  a  Susanna,  and  each  of  these 
declared  to  have  a  supernatural  birth.  It  may  become 
a  doctrine  of  some  future  Church  that  a  man  must 
believe  in  all  the  seven  "  immaculate  conceptions,"  or 
else  "  perish  everlastingly."  Why  should  Catholics 
stop  with  three  while  the  Hindoos  have  so  many  ? 
There  is  no  historical  evidence  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
ever  believed  himself  supernaturally  born  or  his  mother 
supernaturally  born  ;  and  Anna,  the  mother  of  Mary,  is 
a  person  as  purely  fictitious  as  Joanna,  and  Rosanna, 
and  Roxanna,  and  Susanna,  whom  I  have  just  invented. 
That  is  one  example  of  the  process  of  forming  a  doc- 
trine out  of  caprice  and  fixing  it  in  the  Church ;  the 
popular  theology  contains  many  more.  The  Moham- 
medan theology  equally  abounds  in  doctrines  derived 
from  caprice.  Nay,  all  the  mythologies  of  the  world 
are  full  of  such  fancies ;  for  human  nature  is  the  same 
in  Gentile,  Jew,  and  Christian. 

Some  doctrines  of  Christian  theology  are  Biblical, 
and  were  taught  by  Jesus ;  some  Biblical  and  were 
not  taught  by  him.  After  the  death  of  Jesus  there 
was  a  great  development  of  theological  doctrines  quite 
foreign  to  him,  as  any  one  may  see  who  will  read  the 
book  of  Revelation,  —  which  has  very  little  religious 
feeling  in  it,  —  or  the  fourth  Gospel,  full  of  religious 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  85 

feeling,  each  containing  a  theology  widely  unlike  that 
which  is  taught  in  the  words  of  Jesus  in  the  former 
three  gospels  ;  nay,  directly  antagonistic  thereto.  But 
the  greater  part  of  what  is  called  Christian  theology  is 
post-Biblical,  and  would  be  as  strange  to  Paul  and 
Apollos,  as  much  of  their  teaching  would  be  foreign 
to  the  ear  of  Jesus.  Some  of  its  doctrines  at  his  time 
lay  latent  in  the  mind  of  the  world,  and  have  since 
become  patent,  so  to  say ;  others  have  been  added 
anew. 

In  the  popular  theology  there  are  comprised  some  of 
the  greatest  truths  of  religion  which  man  has  attained 
thus  far. 

There  is,  for  example,  the  doctrine  of  the  Existence 
of  God,  as  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  a  Being 
different  in  kind  from  matter,  and  from  man. 

Next,  there  is  the  gi'eat  doctrine  of  the  Immortality 
of  every  man,  and  the  certainty  of  retribution. 

As  a  third  thing,  there  is  the  doctrine  of  the  moral 
Obhgation  of  every  man  to  obey  the  Law  of  God. 

As  a  fourth  thing,  there  is  the  doctrine  concern- 
ing the  Connection  between  Man  and  God,  whereby 
man  receives  from  God  inspiration,  guidance,  and 
blessing. 

And  as  a  fifth  thing,  it  is  affirmed  that  there  is  this 
Connection  between  man  and  man,  —  a  duty  on  the 
part  of  one  to  love  another,  of  all  to  love  each,  and  of 
each  to  love  all. 

These  are  great  doctrines,  of  immense  value  to  man- 
kind. 

I  am  by  no  means  disposed  to  underrate  science, 
the  grand  achievements  of  human  thought,  which  have 
brought  the  stars  down  to  the  astronomer's  mirror,  and 

8 


86  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

have  brought  up  to  common  knowledge  the  little  things 
which  millions  of  years  ago  were  laid  away  and  em- 
balmed in  the  unchanging  rock.  Man  has  formulated 
the  sky  and  knows  the  whereabouts  of  the  stars ;  has 
formulated  the  rock  and  knows  the  habits  of  the  little 
insects  which  you  find  in  a  piece  of  slate  from  Berlin, 
in  the  chalk  of  Dover  Cliff,  in  the  sands  under  our  feet, 
or  in  the  shme  that  sldrts  our  wharves  as  each  receding 
"tide  goes  out.  All  these  are  grand  triumphs  of  human 
thought.  But  these  five  great  doctrines  which  I  have 
spoken  of,  —  the  existence  of  God,  the  immortality  of 
man,  the  moral  obligation  of  man  to  obey  the  law  of 
God,  the  connection  between  man  and  God,  and  the 
connection  of  love  between  man  and  man,  —  these  I 
think  are  by  far  the  most  important  speculative  doctrines 
known  to  the  human  intellect. 

But  the  popular  theology  has  very  great  defects  as  a 
scheme  of  the  universe,  and  it  teaches  great  errors. 
Fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred  years  ago  Arnobius  and 
Augustine,  with  other  great  teachers  of  Christianity, 
pointed  out  the  follies  of  Heathenism  in  the  most  bitter 
polemics.  It  would  be  just  as  easy  and  just  as  appro- 
priate in  bitter  sermons,  at  this  day,  to  point  out  the 
errors  of  the  popular  theology  of  the  churches.  I  wish 
with  no  bitterness  to  expose  the  error.  Bitterness  is 
always  out  of  place  in  philosophy,  in  theology,  in  phi- 
lanthropy. The  Heathens  before  Christ  meant  to  be 
right,  and  as  a  whole  did  the  best  they  could ;  and  so 
the  Christians  after  Christ  have  meant  to  be  right,  and 
have  done  the  best  they  could  as  a  whole.  Aristotle 
and  Augustine  seem  to  me  equally  honest,  and  equally 
mistaken  in  many  matters.  Individuals  have  purposely 
gone  wrong,  but  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  the 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  87 

men  who  have  taught  theology  before  Jesus  or  after 
him,  it  seems  to  me,  meant  to  learn  the  truth  and  teach 
the  truth.  Let  us  thank  all  of  these  for  the  good  they 
did,  and  let  us  do  better  if  we  can ;  hoping  that  some- 
body, by  and  by,  will  come  and  do  better  than  we,  and 
will  efface  our  errors,  seeing  truths  clearly  which  we 
have  but  dimly  seen,  and  the  truths  dimly  which  we 
have  not  seen  at  all. 

I  say  there  are  great  errors  in  the  popular  theology 
of  the  Christian  churches,  regarded  as  a  Theory  of  the 
Universe  ;  great  errors  in  the  Idea  of  God  ;  in  the  Idea 
of  Man,  and  next  in  the  Idea  of  the  Relation  between 
the  two. 

I.  Look  at  the  Idea  of  God.  In  the  popular  the- 
ology God  is  represented  as  a  finite  and  imperfect  God. 
It  is  not  said  so  in  words  ;  the  contrary  is  often  said ; 
nevertheless  it  is  so.  He  is  actually  represented  as  im- 
perfect in  power,  imperfect  in  wisdom,  imperfect  in  jus- 
tice, in  love,  and  in  holiness.  It  is  so  represented  in 
facts,  or  alleged  facts,  related  in  the  Bible,  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  both.  It  is  so  in  the  Catholic 
Church  and  the  Protestant  Church ;  with  the  Unitarian 
and  the  Trinitarian,  with  the  Partialist  and  the  Univer- 
salist. 

In  terms,  religious  writers  very  rarely  speak  of  God 
as  malignant,  but  they  continually  represent  Him  so  in 
act.  I  say  they  rarely  speak  of  God  as  malignant ; 
now  and  then  a  writer  does.  Some  "  divines  "  have 
distinctly  declared  that  God  was  malignant;  and  not 
long  ago,  in  a  sister  city  of  New  England,  a  clergyman 
preached  a  sermon  to  his  people  with  this  title :  "  On 
the  Malevolence  of   God ; "  If  you  study  the   popular 


88  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

theology  as  a  whole,  you  will  find  that  it  regards  God 
as  eminently  malignant,  though  it  does  not  say  so  in 
plain  words.  The  Tyrian  idolaters,  I  think,  called 
Baal  merciful  and  beneficent,  even  when  they  thought 
he  demanded  the  sacrifice  of  their  children. 

According  to  the  popular  theology  there  are  three 
acknowledged  persons  in  the  Godhead. 

First,  there  is  "  God  the  Father,"  the  Creator  of  the 
universe,  and  all  that  is  therein ;  the  great  Being  of  the 
world,  made  to  appear  remarkable  for  three  things, — 
first  for  great  power  to  will  and  do ;  second  for  great 
selfishness  ;  and  third  for  great  destructiveness.  In  the 
popular  theology  God  the  Father  is  the  grimmest  ob- 
ject in  the  universe  ;  not  loving  and  not  lovely.  In  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and 
Luke,  there  are  some  dreadful  qualities  ascribed  to  God, 
which  belonged  to  the  Hebrew  conception  of  Jehovah : 
but  a  great  many  exceeding  kind  and  beautiful  qualities 
are  also  assigned  to  Him ;  —  witness  the  Parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son ;  witness  many  things  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Jesus.  The  book  of  Revelation  attributes  to  the 
Deity  dark  and  malignant  conduct  which  it  is  dreadful 
to  think  of.  But  the  popular  theology  in  the  dreadful 
qualities  assigned  to  God  has  gone  a  great  ways  be- 
yond the  first  three  Gospels,  and  the  book  of  Revelation. 
It  has  taken  the  dark  things  and  made  them  blacker 
with  notions  derived  from  other  sources. 

Then  there  is  "  God  the  Son,"  who  is  the  Father  in 
the  flesh,  but  with  more  humanity  in  him,  and  with 
very  much  less  selfishness  and  destructiveness  than  is 
attributed  to  the  Father.  Still  in  the  popular  theology 
the  love  which  the  Son  bears  towards  man  is  always 
limited  :  first  limited  to  Believers,  and  next  to  the  Elect. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  89 

It  is  no  doctrine  of  the  popular  theology  that  Christ 
actually  loves  transgressors,  and  as  little  that  God  loves 
them. 

Then,  thirdly,  there  is  "  God  the  Holy  Ghost,"  the 
least  important  person  in  the  Trinity,  who  continually 
"  spreads  undivided  and  operates  unspent,"  but  does 
not  spread  far  or  operate  much,  and  is  easily  grieved 
away.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  not  represented  as  loving 
wicked  men,  that  is,  men  who  lack  conventional  faith, 
or  who  are  deficient  in  conventional  righteousness.  No 
one  of  these  three  persons  of  the  Godhead  has  any  love 
for  the  souls  of  the  damned. 

All  this  is  acknowledged  and  writ  down  in  the  creeds 
of  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  in  this  they  do  not 
differ.  A  few  heretical  Unitarians  have  differed  from 
the  main  church  on  the  arithmetic  of  deity,  not  on  the 
ethics  or  psychology  thereof. 

It  is  commonly  said  there  are  only  three  persons  in 
the  Deity.  But  there  is  really  a  fourth  person  in  the 
popular  idea  of  God,  in  the  Christian  theology,  to  wit, 
the  Devil ;  for  the  Devil  is  really  the  fourth  person  of 
the  popular  Godhead  in  the  Christian  churches,  only  he 
is  not  so  named  and  confessed.  The  belief  in  the  devil 
is  almost  universal  in  Christendom.  It  is  a  New 
Testament  doctrine,  and  an  Old  Testament  doctrine. 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  Trinitarian  and  Unitarian, 
Partiahst  and  Universalist,  agree  in  this.  No  Christian 
sect  has  ever  denied  his  existence ;  they  cannot  whilst 
they  beheve  in  the  "  Infallibility  of  the  Scriptures." 
Says  a  writer  of  undoubted  soundness,  who  represents 
the  popular  theology  of  the  English  and  American  sects, 
"  The  devil  is  the  implacable  enemy  of  the  human  race, 
and  especially  of  believers,  whom  he  desires  to  devour." 
He  is  represented  as  absolutely  evil,  without  any  good 

8* 


90  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

in  him.  When  Origen,  sixteen  hundred  years  ago,  de- 
clared that  the  devil  would  be  saved  in  the  final  re- 
demption, if  there  were  a  spark  of  goodness  in  him,  he 
was  declared  a  heretic  by  the  churches,  and  all  Chris- 
tendom rung  with  accusations  against  him,  because  he 
thought  the  devil  might  be  saved.  It  was  a  heresy  in 
Robert  Burns  when  he  said  he  was  loath  to  think  of  the 
pit  of  darkness  even  for  the  devil's  sake,  and  wished  he 
might  "  take  a  thought  and  mend." 

Well,  now,  this  absolutely  evil  Devil,  if  there  were 
such  a  being,  must  have  come  from  God,  who  is  the 
only  Creator ;  and  of  course,  therefore,  is  as  much  a 
part  of  God's  work  and  design  as  the  Eternal  Son  after 
he  was  "  eternally  begotten,"  or  the  Eternal  Holy  Ghost 
after  he  had  "  eternally  proceeded;"  and  the  existence 
of  the  devil,  therefore,  is  as  much  a  work  of  God  as  the 
existence  of  the  Son  or  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  all  the 
evil  of  the  devil  must  have  originated  with  God.  God, 
therefore,  must  have  made  the  devil  absolutely  evil,  be- 
cause He  wanted  to  make  the  devil  absolutely  evil.  If 
the  devil  were  niade  partially  good,  with  a  nature 
which,  under  the  circumstances  he  was  placed  in,  would 
develop  into  absolute  evil  —  all  of  that  must  be  so,  be- 
cause God  the  Father  wished  it  to  be  so.  The  devil 
must  be  "  the  implacable  enemy  of  the  human  race," 
with  this  extraordinary  appetite  for  "believers,"  because 
God  wished  him  to  be  so.  God  therefore  is  responsible 
for  the  devil ;  and  the  character  of  absolute  evil,  which 
is  in  the  devil,  must  have  been  in  God  first. 

The  power  assigned  to  the  devil  and  the  influence 
over  men  commonly  attributed  to  him,  is  much  greater, 
since  the  creation,  than  that  of  all  the  three  other  Per- 
sons put  together.  And  so  the  devil  is  really  therefore 
the  most  effective  person  of  the  popular  Godhead,  only 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  91 

not  SO  confessed.  There  is  no  mistake  in  this  reason- 
ing, strange  as  it  may  seem.  It  takes  all  these  four 
Persons  to  make  up  and  represent  the  popular  theologi- 
cal notion  of  God. 

Then  God  as  a  whole  is  represented  as  angry  with 
mankind  as  a  whole.  There  is,  on  the  one  side,  an 
offended  God,  and  on  the  other  an  offending  human 
race.  God  the  Father  is  angry  with  manldnd ;  God 
the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost  are  both  angry  with 
mankind  ;  and  the  devil,  "  the  implacable  enemy  of  the 
human  race,"  as  a  roaring  lion  walks  about  seeking 
whom  he  may  devour,  "  especially  believers." 

But  there  are  a  few  whom  the  devil  will  not  be  able 
to  devour,  who  will  be  saved,  whom  the  Holy  Ghost 
will  inspire,  whom  the  Son  will  ransom  and  the  Father 
bless.  These  are  only  the  smallest  fraction  of  man- 
kind, and  the  devil  gets  ail  the  rest :  so  that  really,  ac- 
cording to  the  practical  teaching  of  this  theology,  the 
devil,  the  unacknowledged  person  of  the  Godhead,  is, 
after  all,  stronger  than  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son, 
and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  aU  united. 

To  speak  of  the  deity  as  a  Unit,  God  is  represented 
as  not  working  by  law,  that  is,  by  a  constant  mode  of 
operation  —  in  the  most  important  cases,  —  but  by 
miracle.  So  God  and  the  universe  are  not  completely 
at  one,  but  He  acts  in  it  by  miracle  ;  that  is,  by  an  ir- 
regular and  capricious  mode  of  operation,  reversing  its 
laws;  for  example,  in  the  Flood,  in  the  storms  and 
earthquakes  of  the  material  world,  in  the  creation  of 
woman,  the  birth  of  Jesus,  the  inspiration  of  the  proph- 
ets and  apostles.  All  these  are  theologically  repre- 
sented as  results  of  the  spasmodic  action  of  God,  now 
a  spasm  of  wrath,  then  of  love.  This  theory  does  not 
properly  belong  to  that  idea  of  God  —  original  perhaps 


92  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

with  the  Hebrews  —  which  makes  Him  independent  of 
matter  and  transcendent  over  it.  Much  better  does  it 
cohere  with  the  notion  of  the  classic  deists,  with  whom 
God  and  Matter  were  both  eternal  and  irreconcilable 
forces,  always  a  little  at  feud.  However  the  absurd 
theory  has  crept  in  to  the  Christian  theology,  where  it 
appears  yet  more  absurd  than  in  the  schemes  of  Socra- 
tes and  Aristippus. 

The  authors  of  the  popular  theology  had  no  concep- 
tion of  a  uniformity  of  force,  no  conception  of  a  univer- 
sal law,  whereby  God  works  in  the  world  of  matter  and 
of  spirit  —  in  short,  no  conception  of  the  Infinite  God. 
So  theologians  make  two  forms  of  operations  in  the 
universe.  One  is  the  "  work  of  Nature,"  by  means  of 
law  —  a  constant  mode  of  the  operation  of  a  constant 
force  ;  the  other  is  the  "  work  of  Grace,"  by  means  of 
miracles  —  inconstant  modes  of  the  operation  of  an  in- 
constant force.  Wheat  grows  out  of  the  ground  by  the 
law  of  Nature,  and  is  not  thought,  in  theology,  emi- 
nently to  show  the  goodness  of  God  ;  but  when  Jesus 
made,  as  it  is  said,  five  loaves  feed  five  thousand  men, 
besides  women  and  children,  and  leave  twelve  baskets 
of  broken  bread,  that  is  thought  a  miracle,  a  revelation 
of  the  immense  power  of  God,  which  shows  much  more 
of  his  goodness  than  all  the  wheat  that  grows  from 
the  bosom  of  the  earth,  century  out  and  century  in, 
furnishing  food  for  the  whole  human  race!  Newton 
writes  the  Principia  of  the  Universe  ;  he  writes  by  the 
"  light  of  Nature  "  and  describes  only  the  "  work  of 
Nature,"  and  his  masterpiece  is  considered,  theologi- 
cally, a  small  thing.  St.  Jude  writes  an  epistle  of  twen- 
ty-five verses,  and  it  is  claimed  that  he  wrote  by  the 
"  light  of  miraculous  inspiration  ; "  his  book  is  a  "  work 
of  Grace ; "  a  miracle  ;  and  that  poor  production  of  Jude 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  93 

is  thought  to  be  incomparably  greater  than  the  Principia 
of  Newton,  with  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  La  Place 
thi'own  in.  "  Newton  and  La  Place,"  says  this  theolo- 
gy, "  write  by  the  carnal  reason,  and  their  works  are 
faUible;  while  Jiide  wrote  by  miraculous  inspiration, 
and  his  writings  are  infallible.'* 

The  doctrine  concerning  Man  is  no  better.  Man  is 
represented  after  this  wise :  He  was  so  made  by  God 
and  furnished  with  such  surroundings  that  as  soon  as 
he  tried  to  go  alone  he  "  fell  from  a  state  of  innocence 
into  a  state  of  sin,"  and  has  transmitted  "  original  sin  " 
to  all  his  posterity.  Men  a.re  born  with  a  sinful  nature, 
and  if  not  "  totally  depraved "  they  are  so  nearly  so 
that  the  fraction  of  goodness  is  infinitesimal  and  not 
worth  estimating.  Sin  does  not  consist  in  sinning,  but 
in  being  born  of  Adam  after  the  fall ;  for  his  ofience 
wrought  an  attainder  in  the  soul  of  all  his  children,  for- 
ever. Man  of  himself,  it  is  said,  has  no  power  to  find 
out  moral  or  religious  truth,  and  to  secure  his  own  re- 
ligious or  moral  welfare.  He  is  naturally  wicked  and 
hates  God,  hates  other  men,  hates  truth  with  his  reason, 
justice  with  his  conscience,  love  with  his  affections, 
holiness  with  his  soul ;  loves  falsehood,  injustice,  hate, 
and  wickedness,  all  for  their  own  sake,  not  as  means  to 
an  end;  —  hates  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and 
God  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  only  loves  the  Devil.  In  his 
flesh  there  dwells  no  good  thing.  The  natural  desires 
are  sinful,  and  men  are  first  wicked  by  nature  and  next 
also  by  will.  There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  not  one. 
Men  are  evil  and  evil  continually ;  their  heart  is  as 
prone  to  wickedness  as  the  sparks  to  fly  upward  ;  they 
are  conceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in  iniquity.     If  they 


94  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

do  something  that  seems  good,  even  their  righteousness 
is  as  filthy  rags. 

All  things  which  God  made  work  well  except 
human  nature;  and  that  worked  so  badly  that  it  fell 
as  soon  as  it  was  put  together.  God  must  start  anew, 
and  so  he  destroys  all,  except  eight  persons.  But,  so 
bad  is  human  nature,  the  new  family  behave  no  better ; 
they  must  be  cast  aside  ;  and  God  discards  all  except- 
ing the  posterity  of  a  single  man.  But  they  turn  out 
as  bad  as  the  rest,  and  must  be  thrown  over.  No  good 
comes  of  human  reason,  and  human  nature ;  so  at 
length  "  a  New  Dispensation  "  is  established.  But  the 
new  dispensation  has  worked  scarcely  better  than  the 
others.  The  human  race  does  not  turn  out  as  God  de- 
signed, or  expected.     It  is  a  failure. 

This  is  taught  in  every  great  scheme  of  theology, 
Protestant  or  Catholic. 

Note  next  the  doctrine  of  the  Relation  between  God 
and  Man.  God  is  the  sovereign  lord,  the  king  of  the 
human  race,  and  is  represented  as  creating  and  ruling 
the  w^orld  not  for  the  world's  good,  but  for  his  own  good 
or  glory.  Jesus  calls  God  "  the  Fathee,"  —  the  favor- 
ite name  with  that  great  noble  heart,  —  and  does  not 
call  Him  King.  In  the  third  Gospel  God  is  the  Father 
who  sees  his  penitent  prodigal  son  a  great  way  off,  and 
goes  out  to  meet  him,  and  faUs  on  his  neck  and  kisses 
him,  and  rejoices  more  over  one  sinner  brought  to  re- 
pentance than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  men.  The  au- 
thor of  the  Epistle  ascribed  to  John,  says  — "  God  is 
Love."  It  is  the  bravest  word  in  the  whole  Bible.  But 
by  the  popular  theology  God  is  King ;  Catholics  and 
Protestants  represent  Him  as  a  despotic  king.     There 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  95 

are  three  elements,  as  I  just  said,  conspicuous  in  his 
character.  The  first  is  Power,  —  force  of  hand,  force 
of  head ;  next,  Selfishness,  -t-  love  of  his  own  glory ; 
and  third,  Destructiveness.  Like  other  kings  He  cares 
little  for  the  welfare  of  his  creatures,  though  He  pre- 
tends to  care  much.  Men  must  fear  this  king ;  this  is 
the  highest  thing  you  can  do.  You  must  pray  to  God 
only  by  attorney.  You^  prayer  will  make  Him  alter 
his  mind  and  change  his  purpose,  if  you  employ  the 
right  attorney  in  the  right  way  ;  for  though  this  king  is 
said  to  be  unchangeable,  it  is  thought  He  will  be 
moved  by  the  poor  petitions  you  and  I  put  up.  Divines 
talk  of  "  constraining  prayer,"  —  a  prayer  that  will  con- 
strain God  to  alter  his  will !  The  classic  mythology 
represents  the  ancient  Heathen  gods  as  selfish  in  their 
ruling  propensity  ;  and  the  popular  theology  represents 
God  as  selfish  in  his  love  of  power  and  of  glory,  and 
terribly  selfish  in  his  wrath.  Accordingly,  such  actions 
are  ascribed  to  the  Deity,  in  the  popular  theology,  as  in 
almost  any  country  of  Christendom  would  send  a  man 
to  the  gallows.  The  God  of  the  popular  theology  is  the 
exploit  erer  of  the  human  race. 

In  this  theology  God  is  represented  as  having  made 
and  finished  a  miraculous  communication  MDf  his  will 
to  a  small  portion  of  mankind,  —  the  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians :  that  is  the  "  law  of  God  "  written  in  the  Bible  ; 
the  Old  Testament  is  his  first  word,  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  his  last  word.  But  in  fact  the  two  are  in 
many  fundamental  teachings  exactly  opposite  ;  yet  men 
are  told  to  befieve  them  exactly  alike.  A  man  must 
believe  every  word  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and 
keep  every  command  there.  Does  his  reason  stand  in 
the  way  ?  —  "  down  with  reason  ! "  does  his  conscience, 
his  affection,  or  his  soul  stand  in  the  way  ?  — "  down 


96  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

with  them  all  I "  cries  the  popular  theology,  "  down 
with  human  nature !  "  The  universe  is  not  thought  to 
be  the  word  of  God  at  all,  that  is  "  Nature  ; "  and  here 
again  the  old  heathen  notion  of  a  discord  betwixt  God 
and  the  world  comes  up  anew.  The  laws  written  in 
this  marvellous  body  ;  the  laws  of  the  understanding, 
the  conscience,  the  affections,  the  soul,  —  they  are 
not  thought  to  be  the  word  of  God ;  they  are  not  im- 
perative, ultimately  binding  on  men.  We  are  to  obey 
only  an  arbitrary  and  capricious  command. 

But  man  has  not  kept  this  command.  Men  could 
not  keep  it ;  God  knew  they  could  not  and  would  not 
keep  it  when  He  made  them.  Of  course  He  wished  to 
make  such  a  law  and  such  men  as  are  thus  unfit  for 
one  another — Nature  unlawful,  and  law  unnatural. 
And  when  men  do  not  keep  the  law  that  He  told  thera 
to  keep,  and  which  he  had  made  it  impossible  for  them 
to  keep,  straightway  He  is  angry  with  them,  and  hates 
them,  and  will  destroy  them  in  wrath.  So  He  makes 
the  earth  bring  forth  thorns  and  thistles  for  the  first 
offenders,  and  provides  eternal  torments  for  the  erring 
sons  of  men. 

This  theology  declares.  Every  sin  is  an  infinite  evil, 
because  it  4s  a  violation  of  the  absolute  command  of 
God.  In  a  moment  of  time  you  can  commit  an  infinite 
sin,  and  if  you  have  once  transgressed  any  command- 
ment of  God,  even  in  the  smallest  particular,  you  are 
guilty  of  violating  the  whole  law  of  God,  and  are  under 
the  infinite  wrath  of  God ;  and  all  you  can  do,  all  you 
can  suffer,  will  not  reconcile  God  to  you :  He  hates  you 
with  all  his  power,  all  his  selfishness,  all  his  destructive- 
ness.  But  if  you  do  not  commit  any  of  these  sins,  at 
least  you  are  born  of  the  first  sinner,  and  accordingly 
were  as  much  hurt  by  the  "  fall "  as  he.     But,  the  the- 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  97 

ology  continues,  an  atonement  has  been  made,  a  sacri- 
fice for  the  sin  of  the  world.  God  the  Father  eternally 
begot  God  the  Son,  and  sent  him  into  the  world,  going 
voluntarily,  and  had  him  crucified  as  a  sacrifice  for  the 
sin  of  the  world.  Thus  God  the  Father  is  appeased 
by  the  sacrifice  of  God  the  Son,  who  has  made  atone- 
ment for  men  and  taken  all  the  sins  of  men  upon  him- 
self, and  so  pacified  the  infinite  wrath  of  God  the 
Father. 

But  he  did  this  only  for  such  as  would  comply  wdth 
certain  doctrinal  and  liturgical  conditions :  that  is,  they 
must  believe  certain  doctrines  which  are  repugnant  to 
the  whole  nature  of  a  good  and  cultivated  man ;  repug- 
nant to  his  reason,  his  conscience,  his  affections,  and 
his  soul.  Then  they  must  do  certain  sacramental  deeds, 
which  have  no  connection  with  practical  life ;  nothing 
to  do  with  natural  piety  and  natural  morality.  The 
belief  of  these  doctrines  and  the  doing  of  these  deeds 
is  called  "Christianity,"  or  "religion."  It  is  represented 
as  wholly  unnatural  and  all  the  more  valuable  for  that 
reason,  for  the  natural  heart  is  at  enmity  with  God. 
Thus  some  men  are  to  be  "saved;"  such  as  comply 
enjoy  eternal  happiness,  the  rest  "  perish  everlastingly." 

The  theoretic  and  principal  design  of  this  theology 
is  not  to  make  better  men,  —  better  fathers,  husbands, 
brothers,  sons ;  better  mechanics,  merchants,  farmers,  — 
only  to  get  them  "  saved ; "  that  is,  to  insure  them  a 
good  time  in  the  next  world.  Morality  and  its  conse- 
quent welfare  on  earth  is  only  incidental  to  the  end  of 
religion.  So  religion  is  positively  selfish — not  for  its 
own  sake,  but  for  salvation's  sake. 

But  very  few  come  to  that  salvation ;  it  is  only  a 
few  that  are  saved,  —  look  at  the  list  of  mankind, — 
only  the  Christians  and  a  few  of  the  eminent  Hebrews 

9 


98  THE  POPULAE  THEOLOGY. 

before  Christ,  no  Hebrew  since ;  and  of  the  Christians, 
none  but  the  Elect  in  the  Protestant  Church,  and  in  the 
Catholic  Church  only  such  as  die  in  its  communion. 
Well,  to  speak  approximately,  in  round  numbers,  at 
this  day  there  are  a  thousand  million  men  on  the  earth. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  are  "nominal  Chris- 
tians." To  take  the  Protestant  view,  —  of  these  nomi- 
nal Christians  perhaps  one  in  forty  is  what  might  be 
called  a  real  Christian ;  that  is  an  ecclesiastical  Chris- 
tian, or  actual  member  of  a  church  with  the  doctrinal 
and  liturgical  qualifications  just  referred  to.  That 
gives  us  six  and  a  quarter  millions  of  real  ecclesi- 
astical Christians.  According  to  the  theology  of  the 
prevailing  Protestant  sects,  none  can  be  saved  unless 
he  is  of  that  company.  But  this  number  must  be 
winnowed  down  stiU  further;  for  only  the  Elect  are 
to  be  saved.  What  is  the  ratio  of  the  elect  Christians 
to  the  non-elect  ?  I  do  not  find  it  put  down  in  the  theo- 
logical arithmetic,  and  have  no  means  of  ascertaining. 
But  all  the  rest  are  to  be  damned  to  everlasting  woe ; 
that  is,  all  men  now  living  who  are  not  Christians,  name- 
ly, seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions ;  and  of  the  nomi- 
nal Christians  ninety-seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  or  two 
hundred  and  forty-three  millions  and  a  quarter  more ; 
and  of  the  real  Christians  I  know  not  how  many ;  and 
of  men  long  ago  deceased,  all  the  non-elect  of  the  real 
Christians,  all  the  merely  nominal  Christians,  and  all 
who  were  not  nominal  Christians ;  —  so  that  not  more 
than  one  out  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  could  ever 
taste  of  Heaven. 

•The  Catholic  doctrine  on  this  point  condemns  all 
who  are  out  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  distinction 
sometimes  made  by  tender-hearted  and  pious  Catholics, 
between  the  Body  of  the  Church  which  is  visible,  and 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  99 

the  Soul  of  the  Church  which  is  invisible,  is  only  an 
individual  departure  from  the  doctrinal  tradition  of  the 
Church  itself. 

The  first  Gospel  represents  the  way  to  Heaven  as 
narrow  and  strait,  and  found  by  few ;  and  the  other,  the 
way  to  Hell,  is  represented  as  broad  and  abundantly 
travelled.  Says  the  Methodist  hymn,  which  incarnates 
in  a  single  verse  the  teaching  of  the  popular  theology, 

"  Broad  is  the  road  that  leads  to  Death, 
And  thousands  walk  together  there ; 
But  AVisdom  shows  a  narrow  path, 
With  here  and  there  a  traveller." 

Those  that  are  saved  are  not  saved  by  their  character; 
virtue  has  no  virtue  to  save  your  soul.  Tell  the  Cath- 
olic priest  you  expect  Heaven  for  your  good  works,  and 
your  faithfulness  to  yourself,  —  he  assures  you  that  you 
are  in  the  bond  of  iniquity.  Tell  the  Protestant  priest 
the  same  thing,  he  is  certain  you  are  in  the  broad  way 
to  destruction.  You  must  be  saved  only  by  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  as  the  divine  cause  ;  and  by  belief  in  this 
theology,  as  the  human  condition.  Piety  and  Morality, 
"  natural  religion,"  is  no  condition  of  salvation ;  good 
works  are  bad  things  for  that.  The  elect  are  no  better 
than  other  men ;  they  are  saved  by  virtue  of  the  De- 
crees of  God,  who  has  mercy  on  whom  He  will  have 
mercy,  and  rejects  whom  he  will,  and  takes  his  elect 
to  heaven  by  a  short  path  through  "  grace,"  not  over 
the  long,  flat,  duU  road  of  "works."  It  is  supposed 
that  man  has  no  right  towards  God,  and  that  God's 
mode  of  operation  is  infinite  caprice.  Laws  of  Nature 
are  no  finality  with  their  Maker ! 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  represented  as  going  about  seek- 
ing to  inspire  men  with  the  will  to  be  saved.     He  does 


100  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

not  come  into  assemblies  of  men  of  science,  who  are 
seeking  to  learn  the  laws  of  God.  It  would  be  deemed 
impious  to  speak  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  attending  the 
meetings  of  the  French  Institute,  or  the  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  in  Boston.  He  does  not  come  into 
assemblies  of  men  trying  to  make  the  world  better  off, 
and  men  better.  It  would  be  deemed  blasphemy  to 
speak  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  attending  a  meeting  for  the 
prevention  of  pauperism  or  crime  ;  a  peace  meeting,  a 
temperance  meeting,  a  meeting  against  capital  punish- 
ment, an  anti-slavery  convention,  or  a  Woman's  Rights' 
meeting.  If  somebody  should  say  of  the  Convention 
that  met  at  Syracuse,  day  before  yesterday,  to  com- 
memorate the  rescue  of  a  fugitive  slave  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  kidnappers,  that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  de- 
scended upon  it, "  what  would  the  clergymen  say  ? 
"Why,  that  would  be  thought  a  greater  atrocity  than 
even  I  have  ever  yet  committed.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
not  represented  as  inspiring  philosophers  like  Leibnitz, 
Newton,  and  Kant,  or  philanthropists  like  the  reformers 
of  old  or  modern  times.  He  attends  camp-meetings,  is 
present  at  "  Revivals,"  frequents  tract  societies,  and  the 
like.  You  never  saw  a  picture  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
coming  down  upon  a  chemist  inventing  ether,  on  Co- 
lumbus thinking  America  into  life,  or  on  Faustus 
making  a  printing-press  —  it  is  the  Devil  that  is  said  to 
have  inspired  him,  and  by  no  means  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Oh  no,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  not  represented  as  descending 
on  Franklin,  flying  a  Idte  into  a  thundercloud  and 
taking  out  the  lightning  with  a  string,  founding  acad- 
emies, and  hospitals,  and  libraries  ;  but  he  comes  down 
upon  monks,  and  nuns,  and  ascetics,  praying  with  their 
lips ;  not  on  common  laborious  men  and  women  pray- 
ing with  their  hands.     It  would  be  thought  impious  to 


THE   POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  101 

paint  the  "  gentle  spirit"  coming  down  on  a  New  Eng- 
land school-house,  where  an  intelligent  young  woman 
was  teaching  children  the  way  they  should  go ;  or  to 
paint  the  "  Heavenly  Dove  "  fluttering  over  the  head  of 
John  Pounds,  the  British  shoemaker,  sitting  in  his  nar- 
row shop  amid  paste-horns  and  swine's  bristles,  and 
bits  of  leather, 

"  His  lapstone  over  liis  knee, 
Drawing  his  quarters  and  sole  together," 

whilst  teaching  the  little  boys  and  girls  to  read  and 
write  after  he  had  picked  them  out  of  the  streets.  The 
Holy  Ghost  of  theology  has  nothing  to  do  with  such 
things  at  all ;  nothing  to  do  with  schemes  for  making 
the  world  better,  or  men  better. 

Then  it  is  represented  that  God  once  inspired  men, 
Hebrews  and  Christians.  Now  he  inspires  no  man  as 
of  old ;  he  only  sends  you  to  a  book  and  the  meeting- 
house. It  is  thought  God  inspires  nobody  now.  He 
has  spoken  his  last  word,  and  made  his  last  will  and 
testament.  There  can  be  no  progress  in  Christianity, 
none  out  of  it.  We  have  got  all  the  religious  truth 
God  will  ever  give  us.  The  fount  of  inspiration  is 
clean  dried  up,  and  God  is  so  far  off  that  the  human 
soul  may  wander  all  its  mortal  life  and  never  come  near 
him.     All  it  gets  niust  be  at  second-hand. 


Such,  my  friends,  is  the  popular  theology  as  a  Theory 
of  the  Universe.  This  is  the  theology  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  all  the  prevailing  sects.  I  have  taken  pains  not 
to  quote  the  language  of  particular  sects  or  particular 
persons.  Let  no  one  be  answerable  for  the  common 
vice.     The    Universalists   have   departed  widely   from 

9* 


102  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

this  theology  in  the  doctrine  of  damnation  ;  the  Unita- 
rians have  departed  less  widely  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
threefold  personality  of  God.  But  with  the  mass  of 
theologians  God  is  still  represented  as  finite  and  malig- 
nant; man  the  veriest  wretch  in  creation,  with  a  de- 
praved nature ;  the  relation  between  him  and  God  is 
represented  as  a  selfish  rule  on  God's  part,  and  a  slavish 
fear  on  man's  part ;  —  one  man  is  saved  out  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand,  and  ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  are  damned  to  eternal  ruin.  God 
exploiters  the  human  race.  Man  is  a  worm,  and  God 
is  represented  as  a  mighty  heel  to  crush  him  down  to 
hell,  not  to  death  but  to  writhings  without  end. 

This  being  so,  see  how  the  world  looks  from  this 
theological  point  of  view. 

God  is  not  represented  as  a  friend,  but  the  worst  foe 
to  men;  existence  is  a  curse  to  all  but  one  out  of  a 
hundred  thousand ;  immortality  is  a  curse  to  ninety- 
nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  out  of 
every  hundred  thousand  on  earth ;  religion  a  blessing  to 
only  ten  in  a  million,  to  all  the  rest  a  torment  on  earth, 
and  in  hell,  the  bitterest  part  of  the  bitter  fire  which 
burns  everlastingly  the  immortal  flesh  and  quivering 
soul. 

Is  this  popular  theology  a  satisfactory  Theory  of  the 
Universe  ?  Does  it  correspond  to  the  facts  of  material 
Nature,  under  all  men's  eyes ;  the  facts  of  human  his- 
tory, the  facts  of  daily  observation  ?  Does  this  idea  of 
God,  of  Man,  and  of  their  Relation  —  of  God's  prov- 
idence and  man's  destination  —  does  this  agree  with 
the  natural  sentiments  of  reverence  and  trust  which 
spring  unbidden  in  the  living  heart ;  with  the  sponta- 
neous intuitions  of  the  True,  the  Beautiful,  the  Good, 
the  Holy ;  with  the  results  of  the  highest  reflective  con- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  103 

sciousness  ?  No,  it  is  a  theory  which  does  not  corre- 
spond with  facts  of  material  Nature  and  human  history, 
facts  of  daily  observation ;  it  does  not  agree  with  nat- 
ural sentiments,  spontaneous  intuitions,  or  with  volun- 
tary reflection !  It  is  a  theory  without  facts,  without 
reason,  a  theory  whose  facts  are  Fancies,  and  its  reason 
Caprice.  It  swings  in  the  air  at  both  ends.  So  it  bids 
us  ignore  the  facts  of  the  outer  universe  and  deny  the 
powers  of  the  inner  world ;  then  where  it  has  made  a 
solitude  it  proclaims  a  peace,  and  calls  it  the  Peace  of 
God. 

The  other  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Speculative  Atheism 
as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  I  hope  I  did  no  injustice 
to  atheism,  or  the  atheist.  But  which  is  the  worst,  to 
believe  that  there  is  no  God  who  is  Mind,  Cause,  and 
Providence  of  this  universe,  that  all  comes  by  a  fortu- 
itous concurrence  of  atoms,  the  world  a  chance-shot ;  or 
to  believe  there  is  a  God  who  is  Almighty,  yet  omnipo- 
tently malignant,  who  consciously  aims  the  forces  of 
the  universe  at  the  wretched  head  of  his  own  child  ? 
Which  is  the  worst,  to  believe  that  I  die  wholly,  abso- 
lutely, irrecoverably,  and  go  down  to  be  a  brother  to 
the  worm  of  the  dust,  or  to  believe  that,  immortal,  I  go 
to  curl  and  stretch  and  writhe  in  tortures  forever  and 
ever  ?  Which  is  the  hardest,  to  believe  that  your  only 
child,  which  fades  out  of  your  bosom  before  the  rose- 
bud is  fully  blown,  is  no  more  in  all  the  earth,  in  all  the 
sky,  in  all  the  universe,  or  that  she  goes  to  torment  un- 
speakable, unmitigable,  which  can  have  no  end  when 
the  universe  of  worlds  shall  have  passed  away,  and  left 
no  wrinkle  on  the  sky  that  has  also  grown  old  and 
passed  out  of  being  ?  Which,  I  ask,  is  the  worst,  to 
believe  that  there  is  no  ear  to  hear  Abel's  blood  crying 


104  THE  POPULAK  THEOLOGY. 

against  Cain,  or  to  believe  that  there  is  an  ear  which 
hears  it,  One  who  will  damn  Cain  and  millions  on  mill- 
ions of  men,  guilty  of  no  sin  but  birth  —  the  act  of 
God  ;  —  will  damn  all  these  forever  and  ever,  and  then 
will  look  down  with  the  Eye  which  never  slumbers  nor 
sleeps,  and  see  the  innumerable  millions  of  men, 
women,  and  babes,  all  lie  there  a  mass  quivering  with 
torment,  which  He  had  inflicted  of  his  own  freewill, 
and  made  them  for  the  sake  of  inflicting  it,  while  Him- 
self feels  not  a  twinge  of  pity,  nor  lets  fall  a  single  tear- 
drop of  love,  but  rolls  all  the  universe  of  hell  as  a  sweet 
morsel  under  his  tongue !  Which  I  say,  is  the  worst — 
to  declare  with  the  atheist  "  There  is  no  God,  all  possi- 
ble ideas  thereof  lack  actuality,"  or  to  paint  the  Cause, 
the  Mind,  and  Providence  of  all  this  world  as  a  hideous 
Devil  —  and  the  universe  itself  an  odious  and  inexo- 
rable heU  ? 

Yet  the  atheist,  I  suppose,  has  been  faithful  to  him- 
self; and  the  men  who  have  taught  these  horrid  and 
odious  doctrines,  I  cannot  say  they  have  not  been  faith- 
ful. But  I  must  say  that  as  I  hate  atheism,  so  I  hate 
this  other  doctrine,  which  represents  religion  as  a  tor- 
ment, immortality  a  curse,  and  God  a  fiend. 

Atheism,  as  I  said  the  other  Sunday,  sits  down  on 
the  shore  of  Time,  and  sees  the  stream  of  Humanity 
pass  by.  All  the  civilizations  which  have  enfolded  so 
many  millions  of  men  in  their  arms,  seem  but  frail  and 
brittle  bubbles,  passing  into  nought,  —  virtues  unre- 
quited, tears  not  wiped  away,  suflbrings  unrecompensed, 
and  man  without  hope. 

Look  again.  The  Popular  Theology  sits  down  on 
the  same  spot  by  the  shore  of  Time,  and  the  great  river 
of  Human  History  sweeps  by,  fed  by  a  thousand  differ- 
ent streams,  all  mingling  their  murmurs  into  one  great 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  105 

oceanic  harmony  of  sounds,  as  it  rolls  on  through  Time, 
passing  to  Eternity.  I  go  up  before  Theology  and  ask, 
"  what  is  this  ?  "  "  It  is  the  stream  of  Human  History." 
"  Whence  does  it  come  ? "  "  It  flows  from  God." 
"  Where  is  He  ?  "  "  There  is  God  I  Clouds  and  thick 
darkness  are  about  Him.  He  is  a  consuming  fire,  a 
jealous  God,  and  the  breath  of  his  nostrils  and  the 
wrath  of  his  heart  are  poured  out  against  mankind. 
In  His  hand  is  a  two  edged  sword,  and  out  from  His 
mouth  there  goes  forth  fire  to  wither  and  destroy." 
"  Where  does  this  stream  end  ?  "  ask  I.  "  Look !  "  is 
the  answer ;  "  there  is  the  mouth  and  terminus  of  this 
great  stream."  On  the  right  Theology  points  to  Jesus, 
standing  there  with  benignant  face, —  yet  not  all  benig- 
nant, but  cruel  also  ;  Theology  paints  the  friend  of  pub- 
licans and  sinners  with  malicious  pencil,  making  to  the 
right  a  little,  thin,  narrow  outlet,  which  is  to  admit  a 
mere  scantling  of  the  water  into  a  shallow  pool,  where 
it  shaU  gleam  forever.  But  on  the  other  hand  a  whole 
Amazon  pours  down  to  perdition  the  drainage  of  a 
continent,  into  the  bottomless  pit,  which  HeU  is  moved 
to  meet  at  its  coming,  and  a  mighty  devil  —  the  vulture 
of  God's  wrath,  tormentor  and  tormented,  —  sailing  on 
horrid  vans,  hovers  above  the  whole.  And  there  is  the 
end !  No,  —  not  the  end,  there  is  the  beginning  of  the 
eternal  torments  of  the  vast  mass  of  the  human  family 
—  acquaintance  and  Mend,  kith  and  kin,  lover  and 
maid,  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child. 

Which  —  Atheism  or  Theology  —  gives  us  the  fairest 
picture  ?  Atheism,  even  annihilation  of  the  soul,  would 
be  a  relief  from  such  a  Deity  as  that  ;  from  such  an 
end. 

I  said  the  other  day  there  were  atheists  in  America 
seeking  to   spread  their   notions.      But   for   one   who 


106  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY, 

denies  a  deity  there  are  a  hundred  ministers  who  preach 
this  other  doctrine  of  a  jealous  and  an  angry  God ; 
the  exploiterer  of  the  race,  who  will  drive  down  the 
majority  of  men  to  perdition,  and  go  on  his  way  rejoic- 
ing I  The  few  atheists  will  do  harm  with  their  theory 
of  the  universe ;  but  not  a  hundredth  part  of  the  harm 
which  must  be  done  by  this  view  of  God,  and  Man, 
and  the  Relation  between  the  two.  Atheism  is  taught 
in  the  name  of  philosophy,  in  the  name  of  Man  ;  this 
theology  is  taught  in  the  name  of  religion,  in  the  name 
of  God.  I  said  I  should  throw  no  stones  at  atheists ; 
that  I  felt  pity  for  them.  I  shall  throw  none  at  theolo- 
gians, who  teach  that  religion  is  a  torment,  immortality 
a  curse,  and  God  a  devil.  I  pity  them ;  they  did  not 
mean  to  go  astray.  Mankind  is  honest.  Most  of  the 
men  who  teach  the  dreadful  doctrines  of  atheism,  and 
of  the  popular  theology  are  alike  honest.  Lucretius 
and  Augustine,  d'Holbach  and  Calvin,  I  think,  were  all 
sincere  men,  and  honest  men  —  and  perhaps  equally 
went  astray. 

Do  men  really  believe  these  doctrines  which  they 
teach  ?  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  "  There  is  no 
God !  "  and  I  can  believe  the  fool  thinks  so  when  he 
says  it.  Yes,  if  the  fool  should  say  what  the  theologian 
has  said,  —  "  God  is  a  devil,  Man  is  a  worm,  hell  is  his 
everlasting  home  ;  immortality  the  greatest  curse  to  all 
but  ten  men  in  a  million,"  I  should  believe  the  fool 
thought  it.  But  does  any  sober  man  really  beheve  all 
this  of  God,  and  Man,  and  the  Relation  between  them  ? 
He  may  say  so,  but  I  see  not  how  any  man  can  really 
believe  it,  and  have  a  realizing  sense  of  this  theology, 
and  still  live.  Even  the  men  who  wrote  this  odious 
doctrine,  —  the  Basils  and  Gregories  and  Augustines  of 
old  time,  the  Edwardses  and  Hopkinses  of  the  last  gen- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  107 

eration,  and  the  Emmonses  of  this  day,  —  they  did  not 
believe  it,  they  could  not  believe  it.  The  atheist  thinks 
that  he  thinks  there  is  no  God,  and  theologians  think 
that  they  think  religion  is  a  torment,  immortality  a 
curse,  and  God  a  devil.  But,  God  be  thanked.  Nature 
cries  out  against  this  odious  doctrine,  that  man  is  a 
worm,  that  religion  is  a  torment,  immortality  a  curse, 
and  God  a  fiend. 


From  behind  this  dark  and  thundering  cloud  of  the 
popular  theology,  how  beautifully  comes  forth  the  calm, 
clear  light  of  natural  human  religion,  revealing  to  us 
God  as  the  Infinite  Father,  as  the  Infinite  Mother  of 
all,  perfectly  powerful,  perfectly  wise,  perfectly  just  and 
loving,  and  perfectly  holy  too  !  Then  how  beautiful  is 
the  Universe !  It  is  the  great  Bible  of  God  ;  —  Mate- 
rial Nature  is  the  Old  Testament,  millions  of  years  old, 
spangled  with  truths  under  our  feet,  sparkling  with 
glories  over  our  head;  and  Human  Nature,  is  the  New 
Testament  from  the  Infinite  God,  every  day  revealing  a 
new  page  as  Time  turns  over  the  leaf.  Immortality 
stands  waiting  to  give  a  recompense  for  every  virtue 
not  rewarded,  for  every  tear  not  wiped  away,  for  every 
sorrow  unrecompensed,  for  every  prayer,  for  each  pure 
intention  of  the  heart.  And  over  the  whole,  —  Old 
Testament  and  New  Testament,  Mortality  and  Im- 
mortality,—  the  Infinite  Loving- Kindness  of  God  the 
Father,  comes  brooding  down  as  a  bird  over  her  nest ; 
aye,  taking  us  to  His  own  infinite  arms  and  blessing  us 
with  Himself. 

Look  up  at  the  stars,  study  the  mathematics  of  the 
heavens  writ  in  those  gorgeous  diagrams  of  fire,  where 
all  is  law,  order,  harmony,  beauty  without   end ;  look 


108  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

down  on  the  ant-hill  in  the  fields  some  morning  in  early 
summer,  and  study  the  ethics  of  the  emmets,  all  law, 
order,  harmony,  beauty  without  end ;  look  round  on  the 
cattle,  on  the  birds,  on  the  cold  fishes  in  the  stream,  the 
reptiles,  insects,  and  see  the  mathematics  of  their  struc- 
ture, and  the  ethics  of  their  lives  ;  do  you  find  any  sign 
that  the  First  Person  of  the  Godhead  is  malignant  and 
capricious,  and  the  Fourth  Person  thereof  is  a  devil; 
(hat  Hate  preponderates  in  the  world  ?  Look  back  over 
the  whole  course  of  human  history ;  you  see  war  and 
violence  it  is  true,  but  the  higher  powers  of  man  gain- 
ing continually  on  the  animal  appetites  at  every  step, 
the  race  getting  fairer,  wiser,  juster,  more  affectionate, 
more  faithful  unto  justice,  love,  and  all  their  laws  ;  look 
in  you,  and  study  the  instinctive  emotions  of  your  own 
nature,  and  in  some  high  hour  of  self-excitement  when 
you  are  most  yourself,  ask  if  there  can  be  such  a  horrid 
God  as  the  popular  theology  so  blackly  paints,  making 
his  human  world  from  such  a  selfish  motive,  of  such  a 
base  material,  and  for  such  a  purpose,  —  to  rot  its  fiery 
immortality  in  hell  ? 

Is  this  dreadful  theology  to  continue  ?  The  days  of 
its  foul  doctrines  are  numbered.  The  natural  instincts 
of  man  are  against  it;  the  facts  of  history  are  against  it; 
every  advance  of  science  makes  this  theology  appear 
the  more  ghastly  and  odious.  It  is  in  a  process  of  dis- 
solution and  must  die.     The  popular  theology, 

"  Mouldering  with  the  dull  earth's  mouldering  sod, 

Inwrapt  tenfold  in  slothful  shame, 
Lies  there  exiled  from  eternal  God, 

Lost  to  her  place  and  name ; 
And  death  and  Ufe  she  hateth  equally, 

And  nothing  sees  for  her  despair, 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY,  109 

But  dreadful  Time,  dreadful  Eternity. 

No  comfort  anywhere ; 
Remaining  utterly  confused  with  fears, 

And  ever  worse  with  growing  time, 
And  ever  unrelieved  by  dismal  tears, 

And  all  alone  in  crime 
Shut  up  as  in  a  crumbling  tomb,  girt  round 

With  blackness  as  a  solid  wall. 
Far  off  she  seems  to  hear  the  dully  sound 

Of  human  footsteps  fall ; 
As  in  strange  lands  a  travellei*  walking  slow, 

In  doubt  and  great  perplexity, 
A  little  before  moon-rise  hears  the  low 

Moan  of  an  unknown  sea, 
And  knows  not  if  it  be  thunder,  or  a  sound 

Of  stones  thrown  down,  or  one  deep  cry 
Of  great  wild  beasts ;  then  thinketh,  '  I  have  found 

A  new  land,  but  I  die ! '  '* 

10 


SERMON  IV. 

OF  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY  AS  ETHICS. 

(Ill; 


MATTHEW  VII.  19. 

A  CORRUPT  TREE  BRINGETH   FORTH  EVIL  FRUIT. 
(112) 


IV 


OF   THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY   OF    CHRISTENDOM, 
REGARDED   AS  A  PRINCIPLE   OF  ETHICS. 


Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  the  popular  Christian  The- 
ology, as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  To-day  I  ask 
your  attention  to  a  sermon  of  this  Theology,  regarded 
as  a  Principle  of  Ethics ;  that  is  to  say,  of  the  practical 
effects  thereof  when  the  Idea  shall  become  a  Fact. 
I  am  not  now  to  speak  of  the  practical  effects  of 
the  Christian  Religion ;  that  is  to  say,  of  Piety  and 
Morality :  I  am  to  speak  of  something  very  different ; 
namely,  of  the  Popular  Theology,  with  its  false  idea 
of  God,  its  false  idea  of  Man,  and  its  false  idea  of  the 
relation  between  the  two. 

I  shall  not  speak  of  this  theology,  with  these  three 
false  ideas,  as  a  fraud,  but  as  a  mistake.  The  worst 
doctrines  thereof,  which  make  man  a  worm,  religion  a 
curse,  immortality  a  torment,  and  God  a  devil,  I  take  it, 
once  represented  the  honest  thought  of  honest  men,  or 
what  they  thought  was  their  thought.  John  Calvin  was 
an  honest  man ;  Augustine  and  St.  Thomas  were  hon- 
est men ;  Edwards  and  Hopkins  and  Emmons,  —  they 
were  all  honest  men.     The  greatest  may  easily  be  mis- 

10*  (113) 


114  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

taken,  especially  if  they  throw  away  their  reason  when 
they  start.  The  Hebrew  theology,  the  Greek  and 
Roman  theology,  the  Mahometan  theology,  —  all  these 
are  the  productions  of  honest  men,  who  meant  to  be 
right  and  not  wrong.  So  the  errors  of  alchemy,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  of  astrology,  —  they  also  were  the  mis- 
takes of  honest  men. 

This  theology  —  very  much  miscalled  Christian  — 
has  been  made  a  practical  principle  of  Christendom  for 
many  hundred  years.  It  is  set  up  as  Religion ;  for 
though  religion  and  theology  are  as  different  from  one 
another  as  breathing  is  different  from  the  theory  of 
breath,  or  as  slumber  is  different  from  the  philosophy 
of  sleep,  yet  it  is  taught  that  this  theology  is  religion,  is 
Christianity,  and  that  without  this  there  can  be  no  ade- 
quate piety  and  morality,  no  sufficient  belief  in  God, 
and  no  happiness  in  the  next  life.  This  theology  de- 
clares, "  There  is  no  stopping  betwixt  me  and  blank 
atheism." 


Since  religion  is  represented  as  thus  unnatural  and 
unreasonable,  there  are  many  who  "  sign  off"  from  con- 
scious religion  altogether :  they  reject  it,  and  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  It  seems  to  war  with  their  rea- 
son, with  their  conscience,  their  affections,  their  soul ; 
and  so  far  as  possible,  they  reject  it.  They  mean  to  be 
true  to  their  noblest  faculties  in  doing  so.  The  popular 
theology,  with  its  idea  of  God  and  Man,  and  of  their 
Relation,  is  the  philosophy  of  unreason,  of  foUy.  How 
can  you  ask  men  of  large  reason,  large  conscience,  large 
affections,  large  love  for  the  good  God,  to  believe  any 
one  of  the  numerous  schemes  of  the  Trinity,  the  Mira- 
cles of  the  New  or  Old  Testament ;   to  believe  in  the 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  115 

existence  of  a  Devil  whom  God  has  made,  seeldng  to 
devour  mankind  ?  How  can  you  ask  such  men  to  be- 
lieve in  the  existence  of  an  angry  God,  jealous,  capri- 
cious, selfish,  and  revengeful,  who  has  made  an  im- 
measurable hell  under  his  feet,  wherein  he  designs  to 
crowd  down  ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  thousand  of  his  chil- 
dren? WiU  you  ask  Humbolt,  the  greatest  of  living 
philosophers,  to  believe  that  a  wafer  is  "  the  body  of 
God,"  as  the  Catholics  say?  or  Mr.  Comte,  to  believe 
that  the  Bible  is  "  the  word  of  God,"  as  the  Protestants 
say?  Will  you  ask  a  man  of  great  genius,  of  great 
culture,  to  lay  his  whole  nature  in  the  dust,  and  submit 
to  some  little  man,  with  no  genius,  who  only  reads  to 
him  a  catechism  which  was  dreamed  by  some  ceH- 
bate  monks  in  the  dark  ages  of  human  history  ?  You 
cannot  expect  such  men  to  assent  to  that :  as  well 
might  you  ask  the  whole  solar  system  to  revolve 
about  the  smallest  satellite  that  belongs  to  the  planet 
Saturn. 

A  methodist  minister  explained  the  success  of  his 
sect  by  saying,  "  We  preach  religion  without  philoso- 
phy." That  is  to  say,  religion  without  reason  ;  resting 
on  the  authority  of  the  priest  who  preaches  it.  An 
eminent  Unitarian  minister  says,  "  We  also  must  preach 
religion  without  philosophy."  That  is,  religion  without 
reason,  resting  on  the  authority  of  the  minister.  What 
is  the  effect  of  it?  Men  who  have  philosophy,  who 
have  reason,  will  shun  your  Unitarian  and  Methodist 
churches,  and  keep  to  their  reason  and  philosophy ;  and 
they  will  have  as  little  of  such  "  religion  "  as  possible. 
Will  you  ask  a  philanthropic  woman  to  believe  that 
"  God  hates  sinners,"  and  will  abandon  his  own  chil- 


116  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

dren  to  the  eternal  torments  of  the  devil,  when  the  phi- 
lanthropist would  not  leave  the  devil's  children  to  their 
infernal  father's  care,  but  lay  down  her  own  life  to  save 
them  ?  Shall  mortal  men  believe  in  a  God  meaner  and 
less  humane  than  they  themselves  ? 

See  the  effect  of  this  theology.  The  new  literature 
of  our  time,  the  new  science  of  our  time,  the  new  phi- 
lanthropy of  our  time,  have  no  relation  to  the  popular 
theology,  except  that  of  hate  and  of  warfare.  There  is 
a  very  sad  negation  and  denial  of  religion  in  the  popu- 
lar literature.  Religion  is  seldom  appealed  to  in  the 
Houses  of  Parliament,  in  Old  England  or  New  Eng- 
land. It  does  not  appear  as  a  conscious  motive  force 
in  any  of  the  great  actions  of  the  age,  in  the  great  phi- 
lanthropies, the  great  philosophies  and  literatures,  in  the 
great  commerce.  In  the  most  popular  WTiters  of  Eng- 
land, France,  Germany,  religion  does  not  appear  at 
all  as  an  acknowledged  motive.  The  ideal  Brothers 
Cheeryble  of  Mr.  Dickens,  the  actual  philanthropists 
of  Europe  and  America,  are  God's  men,  but  not  the 
Church's  Christians.  All  the  real  piety  which  appears 
in  the  works  and  words  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  all  the 
real  philanthropy,  is  bottomed  on  something  exceed- 
ingly different  from  the  popular  theology. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  is  represented  as  a  curse ; 
and,  accordingly,  that  immortality  is  denied  by  many 
philosophical  and  good  men.  From  the  damnation  of 
theological  immortality  they  flee  away  for  relief  to 
sheer  annihilation  ;  —  and  it  is  a  good  exchange  which 
they  make  ;  for  if  the  popular  theology  were  true,  then 
immortality  would  be  the  greatest  curse  which  the  Al- 
mighty God  could  inflict  on  mankind ;  and  the  whole 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  117 

human  race  ought  to  go  up  in  a  mass  before  the  Fa- 
ther, and  say,  "  Annihilate  us  all  at  once,  and  make  an 
end  of  your  slow,  everlasting,  butchery  of  human  souls ! " 

There  is  but  one  denomination  of  hell,  and  in  respect 
to  this  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Catholics  and 
the  Protestants  —  only  one  quite  modern  sect  of  the 
latter  formally  and  utterly  rejecting  it.  With  that  ex- 
ception the  modern  Christian  Church  is  unitary  on  the 
ghastly  doctrine  of  eternal  damnation,  and  it  makes 
small  odds  whether  I  quote  from  Aquinas,  Quenstedt, 
or  Edwards.  It  is  a  favorite  doctrine  with  the  Catholic 
and  Protestant  clergy. 

According  to  the  popular  theology  the  Elect  are  very 
well  satisfied  with  hell  as  the  portion  for  their  neighbors. 
Listen  to  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  is  commonly  reck- 
oned one  of  the  ablest  intellectual  men  New  England 
ever  bore  in  her  bosom ;  a  self-denying  and  good  man, 
a  man  who  would  have  laid  down  his  life  for  his 
brother,  if  his  brother  had  needed  the  sacrifice.  Hear 
what  he  says,  following  Calvin,  Aquinas,  and  Augus- 
tine :  "  The  destruction  of  the  unfruitful "  (and  the 
unfruitful  are  those  not  elected  to  eternal  bliss)  "is 
of  use  to  give  the  saints  a  greater  sense  of  their  own 
happiness  and  of  God's  grace  to  them."  The  damned 
"  shall  be  tormented  in  the  presence  of  the  holy  angels, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb.  So  they  will  be  tor- 
mented in  the  presence  also  of  the  glorified  saints.  Here- 
by the  saints  will  be  made  the  more  sensible  how  great 
their  salvation  is.  When  they  shall  see  how  great  the 
misery  is  from  which  God  hath  saved  them,  and  how 
great  a  difference  He  hath  made  between  their  state  and 
the  state  of  others,  who  were  by  nature  and  perhaps  for 
a  time  by  practice,  no  more  sinful  and  ill-deserving  than 
any,  it  will  give  them  a  greater  sense  of  the  wonder- 


118  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

fulness  of  God's  grace  to  them.  Every  time  they  look 
upon  the  damned  it  will  excite  in  them  a  lively  and 
admiring  sense  of  the  grace  of  God  in  making  them 
so  to  differ."  "  The  view  of  the  misery  of  the  damned 
will  double  the  ardor  of  the  love  and  gratitude  of  the 
saints  in  Heaven;"  "will  make  them  prize  his  favor 
and  love  vastly  the  more,  and  they  will  be  so  much  the 
more  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  it." 

A  good  man  on  earth  cannot  eat  his  dinner,  if  a 
hungry  dog  looks  in  his  face,  without  giving  him  a 
bone,  surely  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  his  table ;  but  the 
elect  of  Mr.  Edwards,  chosen  out  of  God's  Universe,  are 
to  whet  their  appetite  with  the  groans  of  the  damned. 
"What  shall  we  think  of  the  Ethics  which  makes  a 
Christian  Minister  anticipate  new  joy  in  heaven  from 
looking  down  upon  the  torment  of  his  former  neighbors 
and  friends,  nay,  of  his  own  children,  —  and  whetting 
his  appetite  for  Heaven  with  the  smoke  of  their  tor- 
ment steaming  up  from  hell!  But  such  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  popular  theology  of  New  England  and  of 
Old  England,  and  aU  Christendom.  The  idea  is  suffi- 
ciently scriptural,  and  has  long  been  claimed  as  a  "  doc- 
trine of  revelation."  Everybody  who  denies  it  from 
Adamantine  Origen  of  Alexandria  to  Hosea  Ballou  in 
Boston,  gets  a  bad  name  in  the  churches.  The  idea 
of  eternal  damnation  is  the  Goliath  of  the  Church. 
Now  I  say  annihilation  is  a  relief  from  that  form  of 
"everlasting  life;"  and  that  is  the  cause  why  many 
men  deny  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Then  God  is  represented  as  a  tyrant ;  an  omnipotence 
of  selfishness,  with  a  mode  of  action  which  is  wholly 
inconsistent  with  the  facts  of  Nature  and  the  laws 
of  the  human  mind.     Of  all  the  grim  conceptions  of 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  119 

Deity  which  men  have  ever  formed,  from  Tyrian  Mel- 
karth  to  Scandinavian  Loke,  I  know  none  more  grim 
and  abominable  than  the  conception  of  God  set  forth  by 
some  of  the  ablest  writers  of  the  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant Church.  It  revolts  the  dearest  instincts  of  human 
natm-e. 

Accordingly  some  men  deny  the  existence  of  God. 
They  not  only  deny  the  actuality  of  the  popular  theo- 
logical idea  of  God,  but  of  all  possible  ideas  of  God. 
There  is  much  excuse  for  the  speculative  atheist  in  his 
denial. 

The  popular  theological  idea  of  God  is  not  adequate 
to  the  purposes  of  science.  God  is  not  represented  as 
really  omnipresent,  a  constant  and  perpetual  power, 
but  as  present  eminently  in  one  spot  called  Heaven. 
A  modern  Doctor  of  Divinity  declares  in  an  address, 
well  studied,  and  delivered  before  scholarly  men,  that 
we  are  not  to  suppose  that  God  is  in  all  places  as  he 
is  in  some  one  special  place.  Accordingly  his  action  is 
to  be  regarded  as  irregular  and  spasmodic.  This  doc- 
trine, though  seldom  plainly  put,  though  often  denied  in 
terms,  lies  deep  in  the  popular  theology — which  knows 
no  God  immanent  in  the  Universe  and  yet  transcen- 
dent thereof.  It  is  the  Bible  doctrine.  Catholic  and 
Protestant. 

Science  knows  no  limited  and  local  God ;  it  tells  us 
of  a  power  immanent  and  uniform ; 

"  As  full  as  perfect  in  a  hair  as  heart." 

So  then  Science  rejects  the  theological  idea  of  God 
as  not  being  adequate  for  scientific  purposes. 

Then  as  Theology  tells  you  of  a  God  who  loves  one 
and  rejects  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  out  of  the 


120  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

thousand,  modern  Philanthropy  rejects  that  idea  of 
God,  as  inadequate  to  its  purpose.  Science  rejects  it 
because  he  is  impotent ;  Philanthropy  rejects  it  because 
he  is  malignant. 

The  popular  idea  of  God  does  lack  actuality.  It  is 
a  conceivable  nothing;  but  impossible,  and  involving 
as  much  contradiction  as  the  notion  of  a  cubical  sphere, 
or  of  a  thing  which  is  and  is  not  at  the  same  time. 
The  atheist  is  right  in  denying  the  existence  of  an 
angry  and  jealous  God,  who  makes  ninety-nine  thou- 
sand nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  for  ruin,  and  only 
one  for  bliss.  The  "  atheism "  of  Comte  and  Feuer- 
bach,  is  higher  and  better  than  the  theological  idea  of 
God,  as  represented  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  great 
champion  of  New  England  divinity.  But  Edwards 
only  painted  full  length,  and  in  colors,  what  Augustine 
and  Aquinas  and  other  great  theological  artists  had 
faintly  sketched,  with  paler  tints,  shrinking  back  a  little 
from  the  gorgon  head  they  dimly  drew. 

Now  as  this  theology  gives  us  such  an  unjust  and 
unnatural  idea  of  God,  of  Man,  and  of  the  Relation 
between  the  two,  there  has  followed,  as  an  unavoidable 
consequence  of  this,  a  great  denial  of  religion  aU  over 
Christendom ;  a  denial  of  the  religious  nature  of  man, 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  of  the  existence  of 
God.  The  great  priests  are  technical  Christians  every- 
where ;  the  great  philosophers  and  the  great  philanthro- 
pists are  not  technical  Christians  anywhere.  I  mean  to 
say  the  Church  does  not  recognize  them  as  belonging 
to  its  bosom ;  —  and  they  do  not  belong  to  the  Church's 
bosom.  What  is  more  —  the  sincerity  of  the  great 
priests  in  their  professions  of  theological  belief,  is  pop- 
ularly doubted  just  in  proportion  to  the  intellect  and 


THE   POPULAE   THEOLOGY.  121 

education  of  the  priest ;  while  nobody  doubts  that  the 
denial  of  the  philosopher  is  sincere  and  honest.  Out 
of  the  priesthood  the  great  minds  reject  the  popular 
theology ;  many  of  ihem  I  fear  reject  all  theology.  Of 
all  the  greatest  minds  of  the  Germanic  race,  Humboldt, 
Von-Buch,  Oken,  Oersted,  Vogt,  not  one  of  them  is 
technically  a  Christian.  The  great  Germanic  minds 
not  long  ago  deceased  —  Kant,  Fichte,  Hegel,  Gothe, 
Schnier,  and  the  rest  were  any  thing  but  "  professing 
Christians ; "  not  one  of  them  could  accept  the  theology 
of  the  Church  which  baptized  him.  The  leaders  of  the 
new  French  literature,  —  Comte,  the  Communists,  and 
George  Sand,  and  several  popular  writers  —  they  are 
atheistic :  I  mean  speculatively  atheistic.  I  fear  that 
the  leaders  of  English  literature  are  not  at  all  better, 
only  in  the  English  there  is  a  greater  amount  of  na- 
tional reserve ;  they  do  not  speak  right  out,  as  the 
French  or  Germans.  The  later  works  of  the  greatest 
mind  of  England  at  this  day,  have  no  religiousness  in 
them,  according  to  the  common  sense  of  the  word,  and 
he  has  been  led  even  to  go  far  towards  absolute  denial 
of  all  religion. 

In  England  there  is  a  social  aristocracy  composed  of 
rich  or  well-descended  men,  well  instructed  also  in  their 
intellect;  they  seem  almost  entirely  destitute  of  con- 
scious religion ;  they  have  no  theology  which  satisfies 
their  intellectual  and  religious  need.  Some  of  them 
turn  round,  and  follow  the  dim  candle  of  tradition  lead- 
ing them  back  to  mediaeval,  or  even  ante- Christian 
darkness.  Some  positively  deny  the  truths  of  religion 
which  come  to  consciousness  in  every  age,  —  mediaeval 
or  ante- Christian.  The  most  hopeful  it  is  who  feel  their 
way  along  by  the  natural  instincts  of  the  soul  —  feel- 

11 


122  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

ing  after  God  if  haply  they  may  find  him  who  lives  and 
moves  and  has  his  being  in  them,  as  they  theirs  in  him. 
Near  the  other  extreme  of  society  there  is  a  large  body 
of  hardy,  able,  thinking  men  who  treat  the  popular 
theology  with  well-deserved  scoff  and  scorn  ;  but  yet 
they  see  no  clear  light. 

On  the  Eastern  Continent,  in  addition  to  those 
classes  there  is  another, — the  army  of  learned  men, 
whose  doubts  are  yet  deeper  than  the  English,  and 
their  denial  less  compromising  and  more  public.  Since 
the  breaking  up  of  Paganism  in  Europe,  there  has  never 
been  such  a  period  of  distrust,  of  anarchy,  and  of  chaos 
in  religion. 

Is  it  any  better  in  America?  Here  the  ablest  men 
are  so  busy  in  the  race  for  money  or  for  rank,  men  are 
so  uniformly  "  up  for  California,"  or  "  up  for  office," 
that  there  seems  to  be  little  thought  in  that  quarter 
directed  to  theological  or  religious  matters.  Among 
these  men  compliance  with  popular  opinion  and  popu- 
lar forms,  I  suppose  often  means  the  same  in  America 
in  our  time,  as  in  Ronle  in  the  days  of  Cicero. 

Newton  and  Leibnitz  two  hundred  years  ago  were 
the  tallest  heads  in  Europe ;  they  were  the  leaders  also 
in  the  theology  of  Europe,  and  a  strong  consciousness 
of  God  pervades  all  the  writings  of  those  mighty  men. 
But  the  minds  that  at  this  day  take  the  place  of  the 
Newtons  and  licibnitzes  of  the  last  age,  are  silent  on 
the  matter,  or  else  mock  it  to  scorn.  I  do  not  know  a 
single  great  philosopher  in  all  Christendom  who  is,  in 
the  technical  sense  of  the  churches,  a  "  Christian,"  or 
who  w^ould  wish  to  be.  Of  course  these  men  have  the 
elements  of  religion,  —  love  of  justice,  love  of  truth, 
love  of  men,  and  of  faithfulness  to  their  own  souls  ;  but 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  123 

they  do  not  often  make  it  shape  these  elements  into 
conscious  religion,  and  seem  to  have  little  conscious 
trust  in  God. 

This  theology  has  led  to  a  great  amount  of  real  re- 
jection of  religion  by  men  who  wish  to  be  faithful  to 
their  nature  in  all  its  parts.  It  is  of  no  use  to  say  they 
are  bad  men.  They  are  not  bad  men :  they  lead  the 
science,  and  philanthropies  of  the  world ;  and  I  am 
afraid  that  the  average  speculative  "  atheist,"  as  he  calls 
himself,  is  at  this  day  better  than  the  average  specula- 
tive "  Christians,"  as  they  call  themselves.  The  atheist 
has  abandoned  religion  because  it  is  painted  in  such 
a  form  that  it  seems  worse  than  atheism.  The  Church 
taught  hiin  his  denial,  and  it  ought  to  baptize  him, 
and  not  blaspheme  him.  I  think  Calvin  and  Edwards 
have  driven  more  men  from  religion  than  all  the  specu- 
lative "  atheists  "  have  ever  done  from  Pomponatius  to 
Feuerbach. 

Then  there  are  bad  men  who  reject  religion,  reject  it 
in  their  badness.  The  popular  theology  is  no  terror  to 
the  wicked  man.  The  corrupt  politician  of  England, 
America,  Germany,  France,  the  extortioner,  the  kid- 
napper,—  they  pretend  to  accept  this  theology,  they 
"join  the  Church,"  bring  the  minister  over  to  their  side, 
and  do  not  fear  a  single  fagot  in  the  great  hell  of  the- 
ology. They  may  laugh  at  the  theological  devil,  they 
can  beat  him  at  his  own  weapons.  The  baron  of  the 
Middle  Ages  living  for  the  flesh,  and  against  the  better 
instincts  of  his  soul,  kept  clear  of  the  Church  till  death 
knocked  at  his  door,  then  all  at  once  compounded  for 
sin,  appeased  the  clergy,  and  paid  off  the  old  score. 
The  modern  freebooters  pay  as  they  go.  It  is  the 
cheaper  way.  What  does  the  American  slave-holder 
care  for  the  devil,  for  hell,  or  for  the  God  of  Christian 


124  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

theology  ?  He  gets  ministers  enough  to  baptize  slave- 
holding,  and  prove  it  is  "  only  the  application  of  the 
golden  rule  to  Hfe."  "  Christianity  "  is  not  a  terror  to 
evil  doers,  but  it  is  a  terror  to  good  doers  ;  for  at  least 
the  American  churches  launch  their  feeble  thunders  in 
the  defence  of  every  popular  wickedness. 


Now  see  the  effect  of  this  theology  on  such  as  ac- 
cept it. 

Note  first  its  effect  on  the  Feelings.  Religion  is 
not  thought  a  welcome  thing,  a  thing  that  is  to  be 
loved  for  its  own  sake.  Men  do  not  love  to  speak  of  it ; 
it  is  a  subject  almost  wholly  banished  from  "  good  so- 
ciety." It  is  sad,  grim,  melancholy ;  it  is  not  love,  it  is 
fear ;  almost  wholly  fear.  If  you  take  the  theological 
idea  of  God,  you  cannot  love  Him,  —  I  defy  anybody 
to  love  Jonathan  Edwards's  or  John  Calvin's  concep- 
tion of  the  Deity :  you  can  only  fear  him  as  the  great 
jailor  and  hangman  and  tormentor  of  the  universe,  the 
divine  exploiterer  of  the  race.  His  world  is  represented 
as  a  great  inquisition  —  the  torture- chamber  holding  in 
its  hideous  embrace  all  but  ten  in  the  million!  Ask 
the  children  brought  up  in  families  who  believe  much  in 
this  theology,  if  they  ever  liked  religion  :  ask  the  grown 
men.  Look  in  the  faces  of  the  severe  sects  who  take 
this  theology  to  heart,  and  what  sad,  joyless  faces  they 
are.  Read  the  publications  of  the  American  Tract  So- 
ciety, read  the  New  England  Primer,  the  popular  books 
treating  of  rehgion  and  circulated  in  all  Catholic  coun- 
tries, and  you  see  that  this  religion  is  fear,  and  not  joy. 
Men  hold  their  breath  when  it  thunders  lest  God  should 
hear  them  breathe,  and  lay  at  them  with  his  lightning. 
I  once  heard  an  eminent  Trinitarian  minister  preach  in 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  125 

this  city  that  it  was  wholly  impossible  for  God  to  love 
any  man  except  just  so  far  as  that  man  believed  all  the 
doctrines  of  the  Bible  and  the  New  England  Primer, 
and  kept  every  commandment  in  both  of  these  books. 
So,  then,  there  could  only  be  a  very  few  millions  of  the 
whole  world  that  God  cared  any  thing  about.  All  the 
rest  he  would  damn ;  and  they  would  get  hell-fire,  but 
no  pity  from  angel,  God,  or  devil.  No  Abraham  would 
give  Dives  a  drop  of  water  from  his  finger's  tip.  Could 
you  love  such  a  God  ?  I  should  hate  him ;  not  as  I 
should  dislili:e  a  tyrant  hke  Cesar  Borgia,  or  even  as  I 
should  loathe  a  New  England  kidnapper,  but  as  I 
should  hate  a  devil. 

God  is  represented  as  selfish  and  only  selfish,  and 
selfish  continually.  He  has  the  power  to  bless  men, 
and  prefers  to  curse  them.  Religion  is  represented  as 
selfishness,  only  carried  out  to  all  eternity,  —  and  such 
selfishness,  too,  as  none  but  pirates  and  kidnappers  ever 
practise  on  earth.  "  Aha,"  say  the  blessed  Catholics  of 
Aquinas,  "  Aha,"  say  the  elect  Puritans  of  Edwards,  as 
they  look  on  the  torture  of  their  brethren,  "  Let  God  be 
praised  for  the  torment  of  the  wicked;  so  religion 
bids ! " 

This  crow  of  fear  flies  round  all  the  churches  of  Chris- 
tendom. Men  tremble  at  death ;  they  are  afraid  of 
hell.  Read  the  Dies  Irae  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
"  Judgment  Hymns "  of  the  Protestants,  or  still  worse 
hear  them  sung  by  some  full-voiced  choir  to  appropriate 
music,  and  you  understand  what  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ecclesiastical  service.  Attend  a  funeral  in  one  of 
the  stricter  sects,  —  the  funeral  of  the  best  man  you  can 
find,  but  one  who  was  not  a  "  church-member ; "  —  and 
how  cheerless,  how  hopeless,  how  comfortless  !      You 

11* 


126  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

would  think  that  the  door  which  led  to  the  street  where 
the  last  and  loved  remains  of  the  friend,  husband,  father, 
•were  to  be  borne  out,  opened  into  the  bottomless  pit. 
Men  talk  of  death,  and  say  it  is  a  dreadful  thing  to 
come  into  the  presence  of  the  Living  God !  Are  we 
not  always  in  Thy  presence,  O  Living  Father?  Are 
not  these  flowers  thy  gift  ?  and  when  I  also  blossom  out 
of  the  body,  and  the  husks  of  the  flesh  drop  away,  is  it 
a  dreadful  thing  to  come  into  thy  presence,  O  Living 
God ;  to  be  taken  to  the  arms  of  the  Mother  who 
bore  me  ? 

I  once  knew  a  boy  of  early  development  in  religion, 
dry-nursed  at  school,  against  his  father's  command,  on 
the  New  England  Primer,  and  he  was  filled  with  ghastly 
fear  of  the  God  represented  in  that  Primer,  and  the  hell 
thereof,  and  the  devil  therein,  and  he  used  to  sob  him- 
self to  sleep  with  the  prayer,  "  O  God !  I  beg  that  I 
may  not  be  damned ! "  until  at  last,  before  eight  years 
old,  driven  to  desperation  by  that  fear,  he  made  way 
with  that  Primer,  and  with  its  grim  God,  and  Hell,  and 
Devil,  and  found  rest  for  his  soul  in  the  spontaneous 
teachings  of  the  religious  sentiment  which  sprung  up  in 
his  heart.  There  are  many  who  have  been  tortured  by 
it  all  their  lives  long,  and  who  have  not  sobbed  them- 
selves to  sleep  after  fourscore  years  of  torment. 

You  may  divide  the  feelings  into  two  classes:  one 
that  seeks  a  finite  object,  —  father,  mother,  child,  brother, 
sister,  aunt,  friend;  the  other  which  seeks  the  infinite 
Object,  the  Father  and  Mother  of  all.  This  theology 
is  poison  and  blight  and  mildew  to  both  of  these  classes 
of  feelings.  It  makes  the  trembling  mother  afraid  that 
she  shall  love  her  child  too  well ;  so  the  desire  of  the 
finite  object  is  balked  of  its  satisfaction.     She  cannot 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  127 

love  the  God  painted  to  her  in  the  dark  theology  of  our 
day  —  and  so  the  infinite  hunger  of  the  soul  is  yet  un- 
stilled. 

Note  its  effect  on  the  Intellect.  It  debases  the  mind. 
Quoth  Protestant  theology,  "  Reason  is  carnal :  you 
must  accept  the  Scriptures  as  the  word  of  God,  the  Old 
Testament  as  His  first  word,  and  the  New  Testament 
as  His  last  word ;  therein  God  has  spoken  once  for  aU ; 
you  can  get  nothing  further  from  Him.  You  must  pros- 
trate your  mind  to  the  Bible  ;   you  must  believe  it  aU." 

The  Roman  Church  is  the  great  idol  of  the  Catho- 
lics :  it  is  infallible.  The  Pope  is  the  Church  in  little ; 
he  is  infallible,  and  is  God,  so  far  as  doctrine  is  con- 
cerned. With  the  Protestants  the  Bible  stands  in  just 
the  same  place  ;  it  is  God  to  the  Protestant  theology, 
to  aU  intents  and  purposes,  so  far  as  doctrine  is  con- 
cerned. 

This  theology  stands  in  the  way  of  physical  science. 
Here  is  the  scheme  of  the  Universe  which  belongs  to 
the  popular  theology ;  There  is  an  expanse  called  the 
earth  with  its  hiUs  and  valleys,  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas ; 
next  below  it,  there  are  the  waters  which  are  under  the 
earth;  then  above  it  is  the  firmament,  beneath  which 
are  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  and  above  it  the 
waters  which  are  over  the  earth ;  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  move  round  the  earth.  This  rude  notion  has  long 
stood  in  the  way  of  science ;  it  wrung  from  Alphonso 
of  Castile  the  exclamation,  "  If  God  had  asked  my  ad- 
vice at  the  creation,  the  world  would  have  been  more 
simple  and  better  arranged."  Galileo  must  subscribe 
to  this  scheme  of  the  universe,  or  be  burned  at  the  stake. 
The  Jesuits  who  edited  Newton's  Principia  declare  that 
his  theory  is  contrary  to  theology  —  and  they  publish 


128  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

his  mathematical  demonstrations  of  the  revolutions  of 
the  earth  only  as  a  "  hypothesis,"  as  a  theory  not  a  fact. 

The  popular  theology  meets  the  Geologists  at  every 
turn,  and  denies  the  most  obvious  phenomena  of  sense, 
and  the  strictest  conclusions  of  science.  An  eminent 
theologian,  a  professor  in  the  most  Hberal  theological 
school  in  America  once  said :  "  I  can  believe  that  God 
created  all  the  geological  strata  of  the  Earth,  with  their 
fossil  remains,  all  at  once,  just  as  they  are  to-day,  much 
easier  than  I  can  believe  the  popular  theology  is  mis- 
taken in  its  account  of  the  creation  in  six  days  I  "  Ge- 
ology must  give  way  to  Genesis ! 

It  stands  in  the  way  of  history.  This  is  the  theo- 
logical scheme  of  human  history :  About  six  thousand 
years  ago  God  created  one  man,  and  out  of  one  of  his 
ribs  formed  one  woman.  The  human  race  is  descend- 
ed from  that  pair.  About  fifteen  hundred  years  later 
He  destroyed  by  a  flood  all  their  descendants  except  a 
single  family  from  which  all  the  men  now  on  earth 
have  descended.  God  chose  one  family  out  of  all  the 
rest,  made  a  bargain  with  them,  revealed  himself  to 
them,  and  not  to  others,  and  loved  them  while  he  hated 
the  rest,  and  protected  his  chosen  by  constant  miracles, 
giving  Abraham  a  son  miraculously  born,  then  miracu- 
lously commanding  the  father  to  offer  him  as  a  bloody 
sacrifice  ;  and  at  last  God  himself  becomes  a  man,  born 
miraculously,  and  lives  a  human  life  on  earth,  is  put  to 
death,  and  thence  returns  to  life  and  divinity  once  more. 
Theology  sharply  opposes  every  discovery,  every  fact, 
and  every  thought  which  is  at  variance  with  these  as- 
sumptions. It  demands  belief  therein  as  the  condition 
of  religion  and  of  acceptance  with  God. 

See  how  this  theology  afiects  the   Conscience.     K 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  129 

you  wish  to  know  what  is  right,  for  the  standard  of 
ultimate  appeal,  the  theologian  sends  you  to  the  Bible, 

—  full  of  blessed  things,  but  no  master;  it  contains  the 
opinions  of  forty  or  fifty  different  men,  the  greater  part 
of  them  living  from  four  to  ten  hundred  years  before 
Jesus,  and  belonging  to  a  people  we  should  now  call 
half-civilized.  For  example,  if  you  ask,  Is  it  right  for 
the  community  to  kill  a  man  who  has  slain  one  of  his 
neighbors,  when  the  community  have  caught  and  put 
him  in  a  jail,  and  can  keep  him  there  all  his  life,  shut 
from  doing  harm? — the  theologian  sends  you  to  the 
Bible,  and  tells  you  that  once,  (nobody  knows  when,) 
somebody,  (nobody  knows  who,)  in  some  place,  (nobody 
knows  where,)  said,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed ! "  —  and  therefore  to  the 
end  of  time  you  shall  hang  every  murderer. 

You  ask.  Is  it  right  to  catch  a  dark-colored  man,  and 
make  him  your  slave  for  life  and  pay  him  nothing  for 
his  services  ?  and  Theology  answers,  "  Yes,  for  Abra- 
ham did  so,  even  with  white  men,  and  every  thing 
that  Abraham  did  of  course  was  right ; "  and  next, 
"  Paul  sent  back  a  man  who  had  fled  from  bondage," 

—  only  he  was  not  black,  but  white;  and  thirdly, — 
and  this  is  the  great  argument  of  all,  — "  Ham,  the 
son  of  Noah  laughed  at  his  father  when  he  was  di'unk, 
and  when  Noah  rose  up  from  his  debauch  he  cursed 
the  son  of  Ham,  saying,  '  Cursed  be  Canaan !  a  ser- 
vant of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren ! '  and 
therefore  the  whites  are  right  in  enslaving  the  blacks." 
This  is  the  theological  argument. 

I  ask.  Must  I  obey  the  law  statute  of  men,  when  it 
offends  my  conscience  ?  "  Yes,"  says  Theology,  "  for 
when  Nero  was  emperor  of  Rome  a  poor  sailmaker 
said,  *  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God,'  and 


130  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

*  whosoever  resisteth  the  power  resisteth  the  ordinance 
of  God.' "  The  fact  that  Paul's  noble  life  was  a  manly 
resistance  to  tyrants,  and  a  brave  obedience  to  God,  is 
not  taken  into  the  account. 

This  theology  leads  men  to  disregard  the  natural  laws 
of  both  body  and  spirit,  in  order  to  keep  an  arbitrary 
command.  So  it  underrates  the  natural  morality  and 
natural  piety.  Men  keep  the  Ten  Commandments: 
therein  they  do  well ;  but  they  forget  that  every  faculty 
of  the  body,  every  faculty  of  the  spirit  —  of  the  mind, 
the  conscience,  the  heart,  and  the  soul,  —  has  also  its 
commandments,  just  as  imperative  as  though  they  had 
been  thundered  forth  by  the  voice  of  the  Most  High, 
amidst  the  clouds  of  Sinai.  The  popular  theology 
denies  this. 


See  the  effect  of  this  theology  on  Practical  Life. 
Religion  is  largely  separated  from  daily  work  and  daily 
charity.  It  has  a  place  for  itself,  the  meeting-house  ;  a 
time  for  itself,  Sunday  or  the  hour  of  prayer.  It  is  not 
thought  that  "  saving  religion  "  has  any  thing  impor- 
tant to  do  in  the  chaisemaker's  yard,  in  the  tailor's  shop, 
or  on  the  farm  of  the  husbandman,  in  the  counting- 
room  of  the  merchant,  or  the  banking-house  of  the 
capitalist.  Religion  consists,  first,  in  belief;  next  in 
sacraments,  —  ritual  work,  attending  meeting  by  pas- 
sive bodily  presence,  baptism,  prayer  in  words,  and  com- 
munion, as  it  is  called,  by  bread  and  wine.  Religion  is 
for  eternity ;  its  function  is  to  get  souls  "  saved,"  "  re- 
deemed ; "  —  saved  from  an  angry  God,  redeemed  from 
eternal  torment;  not  saved  from  a  mean  and  selfish 
and  wicked  life,  not  saved  from  this  cowardly  and  boy- 
ish fear  of  death,  —  by  no  means  that. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  131 

A  practical  philanthropist  who  picks  drunkards  out 
of  the  mire,  gets  them  w  ashed  and  clothed  and  restored 
to  their  right  mind,  once  visited  a  poor  widow  in  a  cold 
winter  day.  She  had  no  wood  to  burn,  no  means 
to  get  it.  A  clergyman  was  trying  to  console  her; 
"  Have  faith  in  Christ,"  said  he,  "  He  will  help  you  ! " 
Quoth  the  practical  man,  "  It  is  not  faith  in  Christ  she 
lacks,  she  has  as  much  of  that  as  you  or  I,  it  is  wood 
she  stands  in  need  of.  Her  faith  will  not  save  her,  with 
the  thermometer  at  zero.  Do  you  think  the  Saviour 
will  come  and  tip  her  up  two  feet  of  wood  at  her  door  ? 
No  such  thing!  She  has  got  faith,  but  wants  fn:e- 
wood."  The  missionary  went  his  way,  there  was  no 
more  that  he  could  do,  the  practical  man  had  the  wood 
there  in  an  hour  ! 

The  Unitarians  and  Universalists  have  less  of  the 
popular  theology  than  the  other  sects.  I  have  heard 
Orthodox  men  confess  the  fact  that  these  heretics  were 
the  best  neighbors,  the  best  friends,  the  most  honest 
business  men,  eminent  in  charity,  and  all  good  works ; 
and  I  believe  the  praise  was  pretty  just :  but,  they 
said,  "  they  are  the  worst  Christians  in  the  world,  and 
all  their  goodness  is  good  for  nothing,  except  in  this 
life,  and  God  does  not  value  their  works  a  straw ;  at 
the  last  day  He  will  pass  by  every  Universalist  and 
Unitarian  in  the  world,  with  all  their  philanthropy,  to 
save  some  Orthodox  deacon  who  never  went  out  of  his 
way  to  do  a  kind  deed." 

Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  men  who  are  eminent 
for  theological  piety  are  not  to  be  trusted.  Their  the- 
ology makes  them  attend  to  beliefs,  rituals,  and  sacra- 
ments, but  there  it  ends.  JVIr.  Screw  has  the  devoutest 
belief  in  the  popular  theology,  never  fails  of  a  sacra- 
ment, never  cherishes  a  doubt.     His  morning  and  even- 


132  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

ing  are  fringed  with  a  form  of  prayer,  but  he  will 
devour  a  widow's  house  the  next  moment,  and  say 
grace  after  the  meal.  An  Arabian  proverb  says,  "  A 
man  who  has  been  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  is  not  to  be 
trusted  again."  Men  that  have  much  of  this  theoldgy, 
and  its  "  piety,"  generally  have  a  bad  name  in  busi- 
ness. A  business  man  told  me  he  always  wanted  more 
indorsement  on  a  note  from  a  long-faced  man,  eminent 
in  theology,  than  from  a  common  citizen  who  met  him 
in  the  street.  "  Stiict  Christians  "  are  said  to  be  worse 
in  these  matters  than  other  men ;  I  mean  more  covet- 
ous, more  sly,  more  grasping,  less  to  be  relied  upon. 
The  severe  sects  are  austere  in  their  theology,  loose  in 
business ;  strict  in  sacrament,  lax  in  charity ;  instant  in 
prayer,  not  seasonable  in  humane  works.  If  you  want 
self-denial  to  spread  abroad  the  doctrines  of  their  sect, 
there  are  no  men  so  ready  to  make  such  a  sacrifice. 
The  efforts  which  have  been  made  in  the  stricter  Amer- 
ican Churches  to  carry  what  they  call  the  Gospel  —  but 
which  is  only  their  theology  —  to  Heathen  lands,  are 
of  immense  value  to  the  men  who  have  made  the  sacri- 
fice ;  whether  the  Heathen  are  thereby  profited  I  will 
not  say.  But  for  works  in  morality,  in  philanthropy,  in 
charity,  these  sects  are  not  first  and  foremost.  Of  self- 
denial  for  a  theological  purpose  they  have  the  manliest 
abundance,  but  of  self-denial  for  humanity  the  meanest 
lack. 

The  present  position  of  the  clergy  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  character  of  their  theology.  There  are  at  this 
day  about  twenty-eight  thousand  Protestant  clergymen 
m  the  United  States,  and  about  a  thousand  Catholic 
priests.  Almost  all  of  them  come  from  the  middle 
class  in  society,  —  the  class  most  remarkable  for  in- 
dustry, enterprise,  charity,  morality,  and  piety,  —  in  a 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  133 

word,  for  religion.  They  have  the  most  costly  culture 
of  any  class  in  the  nation :  the  professional  education 
of  the  clergymen  has  cost  the  public  more  than  the 
professional  culture  of  all  the  lawyers ;  or  all  the  doctors, 
or  all  the  merchants  and  men  of  science  and  literature 
in  the  country ;  for  most  of  these  latter  men  pay  for 
their  education  as  they  go,  or  at  any  rate  their  fathers 
pay  for  it,  but  a  large  special  outlay  is  made  by  public 
charity,  for  the  education  of  the  minister,  —  very  prop- 
erly made  too.  Nine  tenths  of  these,  I  believe,  who 
accept  this  calling,  come  to  it  from  a  love  of  it,  from  a 
desire  to  serve  God  in  it ;  not  from  selfishness,  but  with 
the  expectation  of  self-denial.  Surely  at  this  day  there 
is  little  from  without  to  attract  a  man  to  so  thankless  a 
calling,  for  their  average  pay  does  not  equal  that  of  a 
fireman  on  a  railroad.  They  count  it  the  holiest  and 
most  arduous  office  in  the  world.  But  yet,  starting  from 
that  class,  with  that  education,  the  costliest  in  the  land, 
and  with  such  noble  motives,  —  how  very  little  do  they 
bring  to  pass,  in  promoting  sentiments  of  love  to  God 
and  men  ;  how  little  in  diffusing  ideas  of  truth  and  jus- 
tice, or  in  any  noble  action  in  any  practical  department 
of  life  !  They  do  exceedingly  little  for  any  one  of  the 
three.  Many  of  these  men  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
human  race,  and  while  mankind  is  painfully  toiling  up 
hill  they  block  the  wheels  forward  and  not  hindward. 

This  is  not  wholly  the  fault  of  these  men.  They  are 
earnest  and  self-denying,  and  mean  to  be  faithful,  most 
of  them.  But  it  is  the  bad  theology  they  start  with 
which  hinders  them,  —  their  false  idea  of  God,  of  Man, 
and  of  Religion,  —  the  Relation  between  God  and  Man. 

They  are  working  with  bad  tools,  —  dull  theology, 
dull  sermons.  Once  a  clam  shell  was  the  best  cutting 
instrument  which  the  human  race  had  used  or  discov- 

13 


134  THE  POPULAK  THEOLOGY. 

ered.  Then  it  was  received  with  thankfulness  of  heart. 
But  if  a  man  in  these  times  should  go  out  into  the 
fields  to  cut  grass  or  corn  with  a  clam  shell,  how  do 
you  think  his  day's  work  would  compare  with  that  of 
a  man  who  mowed  with  scythes,  or  reaped  with  sickles 
or  with  shears  moved  by  horses  cut  down  his  acre  in 
an  hour  ?  Verily  the  fields  are  white  for  harvest,  the 
laborers  many,  but  with  the  clam  shell  for  sickle,  they 
tread  down  more  with  their  feet  than  they  bind  up  with 
arms! 

The  clergymen  cannot  defend  their  theology.  At- 
tacks have  long  ago  been  made  against  the  philosoph- 
ical part  of  it,  and  they  have  never  been  repelled ; 
against  the  historical  part  of  it,  and  there  is  no  satisfac- 
tory answer  thereto.  The  Unitarians  have  attacked  the 
divinity  of  Jesus,  the  Universalists  the  eternity  of  hell, 
and  the  assaults  have  not  been  philosophically  met. 
There  is  a  breach  in  the  theologic  wall,  not  filled  up 
save  with  denunciations,  which  are  but  straws  that  a 
breath  blows  off,  or  which  rot  of  their  own  accord. 

Within  a  few  years  most  serious  attacks  have  been 
made  on  the  "  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures."  Its 
physics  are  shown  to  be  false  science,  its  metaphysics 
false  philosophy,  its  history  often  mistaken.  In  Eng- 
land, Mr.  Hennell  denies  the  divine  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  writes  a  labored  book  to  prove  that  it  came 
as  other  forms  of  religion  have  come,  —  the  best 
thought  of  noble  men.  In  Germany,  Mr.  Strauss,  with 
a  troop  of  scholars  before  and  behind  him,  denies  the 
accuracy  of  the  history  of  the  New  Testament ;  denies 
the  divine  birth  of  Jesus,  his  miracles,  his  ascension,  his 
resurrection  —  they  are  what  one  of  the  latest  writers  of 
the  New  Testament  calls  "  old  wives'  fables ; "  Mr. 
Newman  tells  of  "  the  Soul,  her  sorrows  and  her  aspi- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  135 

rations,"  and  shows  the  "  Phases  of  Faith "  which  a 
devout  and  truthful  spirit  passes  through  in  the  journey 
after  religion,  exposing  the  dreadful  famine  in  the 
churches,  and  showing  that  much  of  the  popular  the- 
ology is  a  mere  show-bread  which  it  is  not  possible  for 
a  man  to  feed  on.  No  man  shows  that  Newman  is 
mistaken,  none  refutes  Strauss,  no  man  answers  Hen- 
nell.  Books  enough  are  written  it  is  true :  "  Lives  of 
Jesus,"  "  Defences  of  Miracles,"  "  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity," —  to  prove  that  some  men  wrote  some  books 
with  such  miraculous  helps  from  God  that  they  could 
make  no  mistakes,  but  yet  the  mistakes  are  there  in  the 
books ;  —  "  Voices  of  the  Church,"  "  Eclipses  of  Faith," 
and  the  like,  and  denunciations  "  Against  Freethink- 
ing,"  without  stint.  Now  and  then  a  feeble  charge  is 
repelled,  a  weak  position  of  the  assailant  is  reconquered, 
but  still  the  theologians  are  continually  beaten  and 
driven  back  before  the  weU  served  artillery  of  thought. 

Church-membership  is  thought  a  needful  condition 
of  salvation :  without  that  a  man  is  not  a  Christian  in 
full,  and  is  not  sure  of  any  thing  good  hereafter.  But 
very  few  join  the  Church.  Of  the  twenty-three  millions 
of  America,  there  are  not  three  and  a  half  million  mem- 
bers of  the  Protestant  Church,  not  one  hundred  and 
thirty  to  a  minister ;  —  a  little  more  than  three  million 
Protestant  church-members,  a  little  more  than  three 
million  slaves  also.  Singular  statistics !  so  many 
church-members,  so  many  slaves !  There  were  never  so 
many  voters  with  so  small  a  proportion  of  church-mem- 
bers ;  never  so  small  a  proportionate  sprinkling  of  bap- 
tism in  the  face  of  the  community ;  never  so  little  taking 
of  the  sacraments  of  the  Church. 

Ecclesiastical  interests  do  not  thrive.  Compare  the 
interest  men  feel  in  a  bank,  in  a  manufacturing  com- 


136  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

pany,  in  a  lyceum,  with  what  they  take  in  a  Church. 
And  yet  the  minister  tells  them  that  the  bank,  the  ly- 
cenm,  and  the  manufactory  are  only  for  to-day  and  to- 
morrow —  for  the  body  while  the  Church  is  for  the  soul, 
and  forever ! 

What  is  the  reason  of  this  lack  of  interest  ?  Even 
clergymen  themselves  partake  of  the  general  dulness, 
and  do  not  study  vigorously  as  the  doctors  and  men  of 
science ;  do  not  plead  for  the  souls  of  men,  as  the 
lawyer  for  their  money ;  do  not  toil  as  the  merchant  or 
mechanic  for  his  gain.  Ministers  do  not  study  the 
science  of  their  calling  as  the  physician,  the  engineer, 
the  manufacturer  of  cloth  or  leather,  the  geologist,  the 
watchmaker,  studies  the  science  of  his  calling.  Even 
the  almanac-maker  is  a  philosopher ;  the  clergyman,  — 
how  seldom  does  he  show  any  tinge  of  analogous  cul- 
ture? 

In  practical  affairs  the  American  clergy  have  but  little 
good  influence  on  public  morals  and  manners ;  an  in- 
fluence not  at  all  in  proportion  to  the  number,  the  edu- 
cation, the  character,  the  position,  and  the  motives  of 
these  men. 

Politicians  declare  there  is  no  law  higher  than  an  Act 
of  Congress,  which  makes  it  felony  to  give  a  cup  of  cold 
water  to  a  man  fleeing  from  bondage.  What  do  the 
clergymen  say  ?  "  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God,  and  whoso  resisteth  the  powers  that  be,  resisteth 
the  ordinance  of  God."  "  Religion  is  an  excellent 
thing,"  says  the  politician,  "  for  every  thing  but  politics  : 
there  it  makes  men  mad."  The  minister  does  not  say, 
"  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble  Festus,  but  speak  forth  the 
words  of  soberness  and  truth :  "  —  not  at  all.  Felix 
trembled  before  Paul  preaching;  now  Paul  in  the  pul- 
pit, preaching,  trembles  before  Felix  in  the  pew,  slum- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY  137 

bering.  The  statesman  says,  "  Religion  must  not  be 
applied  to  politics :  there  let  us  be  practical  atheists." 
The  minister  says,  "  I  will  not  apply  religion  to  politics. 
Be  practical  atheists  there.  I  will  not  disturb  you. 
My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

Traders  apply  to  business  the  same  principle  which 
the  politician  applies  to  the  State,  and  say,  "  Religion 
is  an  excellent  thing  everywhere  but  in  business  :  there 
it  makes  men  mad.  The  '  golden  rule '  is  the  last  one 
that  the  merchant  ought  to  have  in  his  desk;  it  is 
wholly  unknown  to  the  official  '  sealer  of  weights  and 
measures.'  Let  us  not  apply  religion  to  business." 
The  clergymen  answer,  "  Let  us  not  apply  religion  to 
business.  Here  let  us  be  practical  atheists  together. 
The  golden  rule  is  for  the  pulpit  desk;  for  Sunday, 
not  for  the  counting-house  and  the  merchant's  shop. 
Religion  is  to  get  the  soul  saved,  not  to  prevent  the 
extortion  of  the  usurer,  or  the  tyranny  of  the  oppressor. 
Business  is  business,  reKgion  is  religion." 

Different  traders  make  particular  application  of  this 
rule  to  their  several  specialities.  The  liquor  dealer 
says,  "  Religion  is  an  excellent  thing  everywhere  but 
in  the  rum  trade :  there  it  makes  men  mad.  Let  us 
never  apply  it  to  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drink."  The 
clergyman  says,  "  Let  it  be  so."  The  dealer  in  human 
flesh  declares,  "  Religion  is  a  most  excellent  thing  in  all 
matters  except  slave-trading :  there  it  makes  men  mad. 
Let  us  not  apply  religion  to  the  'patriarchal  institu- 
tion.' "  The  clergyman  answers,  "  Slavery  is  of  God. 
Abraham  was  a  slave-holder ;  Christ  Jesus  says  nothing 
against  the  worst  evils  of  Grecian  or  of  Roman  slavery, 
—  not  a  word  against  buying  slaves,  breeding  slaves, 
selling  slaves,  beating  slaves,  or  putting  them  to  death. 
It  is  plain  that  he  approved  of  the  institution,  and  de- 

12* 


138  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

signed  that  it  should  be  perpetual.  The  great  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles  sent  back  a  runaway  slave,  thus  execut- 
ing the  fugitive  slave  act  of  those  times,  and  giving  an 
example  to  Christians  '  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.'  It  is 
only  *  natural  religion '  which  forbids  slavery,  the  heath- 
enism of  pagan  Seneca  and  Modestinus.  Christians 
are  not  in  a  state  of  Nature,  but  of  Grace.  One  of 
*the  advantages  of  a  revelation '  is  this  —  the  kidnapper 
may  keep  his  bondmen  forever.  Mr.  Jefferson  said  all 
men  are  created  equal,  and  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  natural  and  unalienable  Rights,  amongst 
others  with  the  Right  to  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  Pursuit 
of  Happiness.  He  was  an  infidel,  stumbling  by  the 
light  of  Nature  ;  but  we  have  a  more  excellent  way, 
and  hold  slaves  by  divine  revelation  which  transcends 
the  light  of  Nature.  Let  us  not  destroy  slavery  by 
*  natural  religion,'  but  preserve  it  by  '  Christianity.'  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  have  as  many  slaves  as  church- 
members  ! " 

At  this  day  the  popular  preaching  does  very  little  to 
correct  the  great  popular  sins  of  the  people.  It  does 
more  to  encourage  them.  Here  are  the  vices  of  the 
leading  class  of  men  in  their  period  of  calculation  after 
the  period  of  passion  has  passed  by  —  covetousness  of 
money,  ambition  for  political  and  social  rank.  Both  of 
these  are  unscrupulous  in  their  modes  of  action.  Does 
the  body  of  clergymen  do  any  thing  to  correct  this  evil, 
—  corruption  in  trade,  corruption  in  politics?  Far 
more  I  think  to  encourage  each  of  these  leading  vices 
of  the  age. 

America  invades  the  other  nations.  The  pulpit  never 
stands  in  front  of  the  cannon.  Who  preached  against 
the  Mexican  War  ?  How  many  ministers,  think  you, 
in  the  twenty-eight  thousand  Protestant  pulpits  ?    Who 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  139 

will  preach  against  the  present  national  lust  for  land  ? 
Extortioners  levy  their  usury  to  the  ruin  of  the  bor- 
rower,—  the  pulpit  does  not  say  a  word  against  it. 
Politicians  declare  that  the  great  object  of  government 
is  the  protection  of  property,  —  the  pulpit  knows  no 
higher  object  for  government;  "take  care  of  the  rich 
and  they  will  take  care  of  the  poor."  Intemperance 
floods  the  cities,  fills  the  Almshouse  and  the  Jail,  —  the 
pulpit  says  but  little  :  thank  God,  in  humble  places  it 
does  say  something,  though  the  metropolitan  pulpit 
commonly  "hangs  out"  for  Rum.  Licentiousness 
mows  down  the  beauty  of  the  girl,  and  prostitutes  the 
manly  dignity  of  the  man,  —  but  the  pulpit  is  silent  as 
the  house  of  death.  It  has  forgotten  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs. The  kidnapper  comes  to  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  to  seize  our  fellow-worshippers,  —  and 
most  of  the  churches  are  on  his  side.  In  this  city,  a 
man  fleeing  from  slavery,  seized  by  ruffians  and  con- 
fined in  our  illegal  jail,  brought  into  most  imminent 
peril,  sends  round  his  petition  to  the  churches  for  their 
prayer ;  the  churches  are  dumb ;  eloquent  ministers 
come  out  and  defend  the  stealing  of  men.  The  Amer- 
ican pulpit  is  powerless  against  sin :  it  is  a  dumb  dog 
that  cannot  bark  at  the  wolf.  The  great  Rabbis  of  the 
popular  theology  are  on  the  side  of  every  popular  sin. 
What  Roman  augur  ever  opposed  a  Roman  wicked- 
ness ? 

AU  over  the  world  woman  is  in  a  state  of  subjection 
to  man,  almost  everywhere  counted  inferior  to  him,  a 
tool  for  his  convenience,  created  only  because  it  was 
"  not  good  for  him  to  be  alone  ; "  throughout  Christen- 
dom deprived  of  the  ecclesiastical,  political,  and  aca- 
demic rights   or   privileges   of  men,  and  consequently 


140  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

oppressed  by  the  strong  arm.     What  has  the  Christian 
Church  to  say  ? 

Do  not  blame  the  minister  too  much.  He  is  the 
victim  of  his  theological  circumstances,  and  is  com- 
monly a  great  deal  better  than  his  creed.  He  is  wiser 
than  he  dares  to  preach.  His  theology  tells  him  that 
religion  is  not  for  the  earth  but  for  Heaven;  not  to 
make  the  world  better,  but  insurance  on  souls,  to  get 
them  saved  from  an  angry  God.  What  he  calls 
"  means  of  Grace  "  are  not  a  diligent  use  of  all  out 
faculties  of  body  and  mind,  each  in  its  normal  mode 
of  activity;  but  the  vicarious  sufferings  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  are  the  Divine  Cause,  and  a  belief  in  the 
popular  theology  is  the  Human  Condition;  all  our 
"  righteousnesses  are  as  filthy  rags,"  and  shelter  no 
man  from  the  wrath  of  God  and  the  flames  of  hell.  It 
tells  him  that  the  function  of  the  minister  is  not  to  pro- 
mote piety  and  morality,  but  first,  to  intercede  with  an 
offended  God  for  the  sake  of  an  offending  people  ;  next, 
to  administer  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  —  to  sprinkle 
a  little  water  on  the  face  of  a  baby,  —  and  of  the  Chris- 
tian communion,  —  to  give  some  men  a  morsel  of 
bread  to  eat  and  a  drop  of  wine  to  drink  in  the  meet- 
ing-house ;  and  next  to  expound  the  Scriptures  accord- 
ing to  the  standard  of  his  sect.  That  is  the  ecclesiastic 
theological  function  of  a  minister,  whereby  he  is  "  to 
save  souls ; "  this  he  thinks  is  "  to  preach  Christ  and 
Him  crucified."  So  the  churches  are  not  chiefly  insti- 
tutions of  religion,  to  teach  piety  and  morality  ;  but  in- 
stitutions of  theology,  and  are  controlled  not  by  the 
blameless  religion  of  Jesus,  but  by  Theology  and  Mam- 
mon. In  small  country  towns  where  the  people  are 
ruled  by  the  clergy,  the  churches  are  mainly  controlled 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  141 

by  Theology ;  and  in  large  wealthy  towns,  where 
another  class  of  men  bears  sway,  they  are  controlled 
chiefly  by  Mammon.  The  Chm*ch  sitting  on  her  cocka- 
trice's eggs  in  the  one  case,  hatches  mainly  churchlings, 
and  in  the  other  chiefly  wordlings. 

So  the  churches  are  no  defence  against  political 
tyranny:  they  are  on  its  side;  in  old  England,  New 
England,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  all  through  Chris- 
tendom, the  churches  side  with  despotic  power.  They 
are  no  protection  against  practical  atheism :  if  the 
statesmen  say,  "  There  is  no  Higher  Law,"  the  leading 
clergy  answer  "  Very  true !  there  is  none."  They  are 
no  defence  against  covetousness :  the  great  ecclesiastical 
teachers  of  Christendom  are  its  allies.  All  the  popular 
vices  are  sure  to  have  the  churches  on  their  side. 

None  of  the  great  ideas  of  the  times  originate  with 
the  clergy  and  the  Church :  new  thought  is  not  gener- 
ated there.     Theology  keeps 

"  Hawking  at  geology  and  schism," 

and  hates  new  ideas.  None  of  the  great  sentiments 
of  devotion  to  God  are  cradled  there :  Theology  mum- 
bles its  ritual,  and  scoffs  at  the  light  of  Christian  senti- 
ment. None  of  the  great  philanthropies  begin  there: 
Theology  is  getting  men  saved  from  future  torment, 
and  kills  philanthropy.  The  temperance  movement,  the 
peace  movement,  the  education  movement,  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  the  great  movement  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  woman,  the  philanthropy  which  would  heal  the 
criminal,  cure  the  sick,  teach  the  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  and 
the  fool,  —  all  these  are  foreign  to  the  Church  and  the 
clergy,  to  the  popular  theology  which  underlies  both. 
You  know  the  qualities  most  valued  in  a  man  called 


142  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

Christian,  in  all  the  sects  of  the  sectarian  churches :  — 
belief  in  all  the  doctrines  of  his  sect ;  a  devout  attend- 
ance on  all  the  forms  thereof;  a  sad  countenance;  — 
much  talk  on  theological  matters ;  the  reading  of  theo- 
logical books.  That  makes  up  what  is  called  "  Chris- 
tianity." Do  you  think  that  Jesus  would  recognize 
such  things  as  "the  essentials  of  religion"  in  one  of 
his  followers  ? 

How  would  you  judge  of  the  health  of  a  man  who 
proceeded  in  that  way ;  a  man  who  was  thick  with  the 
doctors,  who  was  always  puddering  with  medicine,  and 
reading  medical  treatises,  and  everlastingly  in  a  fuss 
about  his  head,  or  his  heart,  or  his  stomach,  —  his  di- 
gestion, or  his  circulation  ?  Would  you  think  that  was 
a  proof  that  he  was  sound  and  healthy  ?  The  doctors 
might  say  he  was  a  very  good  patient,  but  a  very  silly 
man. 

A  celebrated  clergyman  of  America  once  preached  a 
funeral  sermon  on  a  distinguished  statesman  then  lately 
deceased.  The  minister  claimed  the  politician  as  an 
exemplary  follower  of  Christ,  "  He  had  full  faith  in  the 
leading  doctrines  of  the  Gospel."  What  do  you  think 
they  were  ?  Jesus  of  Nazareth  would  be  a  little 
amazed  to  hear :  "  the  sinfulness  of  man ;  the  divinity 
of  Christ ;  the  necessity  of  his  atonement ;  need  of 
being  born  again,  and  that  his  own  personal  hope  of 
salvation  depended  on  the  promises  and  grace  of  Christ, 
and  that  he  now  wished  to  throw  himself  upon  it  as  a 
practical  and  blessed  remedy."  That  was  what  a  Doc- 
tor of  Divinity  took  for  proof  that  a  famous  American 
statesman,  almost  eighty  years  old,  was  a  Christian! 
He  did  not  ask  for  piety,  not  for  morality,  only  for  a 
belief  in  these  doctrines  of  the  popular  theology. 

If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  to  come  back,  and  bear 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  143 

the  same  relation  to  the  nineteenth  century  which  he 
bore  so  blessedly  to  the  first,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
first  thing  he  would  preach  against  is  what  is  called 
"  Christianity  "  in  these  days  ;  —  I  mean  the  Theology 
of  Christendom. 

This  theology  is  the  greatest  evil  of  our  times.  It 
stands  in  the  way  of  the  emancipation  of  man.  It 
defends  the  despotism  of  the  Church,  and  the  despotism 
of  the  State,  the  despotism  of  the  noble  over  the  prol- 
etary in  Europe,  of  the  master  over  the  slave  in 
America,  of  the  capitalist  over  the  laborer,  of  the 
rich  over  the  poor,  of  the  learned  over  the  ignorant, 
and  last  of  all,  the  despotism  of  man  over  woman.  It 
is  a  lion  in  the  path  of  humankind. 

This  theology  rests  on  two  great  pillars  as  its  founda- 
tion, the  Jachin  and  Boaz  of  theology. 

I.  The  notion  that  God  is  finite  in  his  wisdom,  jus- 
tice, love,  and  holiness  —  only  infinite  in  power  to  damn; 
that  He  is  a  jealous,  angry,  and  revengeful  God,  with 
eternal  hell  behind  him,  wherein  he  wiH  torture  forever 
the  vast  majority  of  his  children,  and  that  Man  is  wicked 
by  nature,  subject  to  the  wTath  of  God,  and  utterly  in- 
capable, by  his  own  efforts,  of  escaping  from  it. 

II.  The  notion  that  Christ  has  made  an  atonement 
for  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  by  his  sufferings  and  death 
has  mitigated  the  anger  of  the  Jealous  God  who  has 
given  a  conditional  pardon  of  sin  and  promise  of  sal- 
vation, and  that  the  condition  of  this  Salvation  is  a 
belief  in  the  popular  theology,  —  which  is  commonly 
called  Faith,  "  faith  in  Christ,"  and  «  faith  in  God,"  — 
and  a  compliance  with  the  ritual  of  the  Church. 

This  Theology  makes  man  a  worm  ;  religion  a  tor- 
ment to  aU  but  ten  in  a  million ;  immortality  a  curse 


144  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

to  mankind  ;  God  a  devil  omnipotent  to  damn,  and  his 
rule  in  time  and  eternity  the  most  selfish  despotism 
which  the  world  ever  knew. 


This  Theology  is  not  always  to  last:  it  is  in  the 
process  of  dissolution  —  there  is  dry-rot  in  its  limbs. 
Philosophy  shows  there  is  no  such  dreadful  God; 
criticism  that  there  is  no  such  atoning  sacrifice  to 
appease  imaginary  wrath,  no  need  of  such  belief,  or  of 
such  compliance  ;  consciousness  knows  no  such  human 
nature  as  the  popular  theology  proclaims.  No,  we  are 
all  conscious  of  a  nature  quite  different  from  that.  Yea, 
O  Father  in  Heaven,  thou  hast  written  of  Thyself  on 
the  walls  of  human  consciousness,  and  we  feel  Thee  in 
our  heart,  with  all  thy  Infinite  Wisdom,  Justice,  Love, 
and  Holiness. 

This  dark  theology  must  pass  away. 

It  is  at  this  day  in  the  same  condition  that  Judaism 
and  Paganism  were  in  Paul's  time.  Then  the  great 
priests  were  Pagans  or  Jews ;  the  great  philosophers, 
the  great  philanthropists,  were  neither  Jew  nor  Pagan. 
Now  the  great  priests  are  theological  Christians,  the 
great  philosophers  far  otherwise.  The  new  bud  is 
crowding  off  the  old  leaf.  The  great  hearts  have  no 
confidence  in  this  theology ;  the  great  heads  have  no 
confidence  in  it  ;  the  great  hands  have  no  confi- 
dence in  it.  The  social  aristocracy  of  England  seems 
false  to  religion.  A  writer,  one  of  the  learnedest 
men  in  Europe,  himself  really  religious,  declares  that 
since  the  breaking  up  of  Paganism  there  has  never 
been  such  a  decline  of  religion  in  Europe  as  at  this 
day.  Another  not  at  all  bigoted  declares  that  in  Eng- 
land the  foremost  classes  of  the  people, — men  of  birth 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  145 

and  riches,  —  have  no  regard  for  religion.  The  labor- 
ing men  whose  daily  toil  hardly  fills  their  mouths  and 
satisfies  their  hunger,  —  they  also  have  small  confidence 
in  it.  The  intellectual  aristocracy  of  France  and  Ger- 
many have  mainly  turned  their  faces  not  only  against 
this  theology,  but  against  conscious  religion  itself. 

Well,  how  much  of  religion  is  there  in  America? 
Ask  the  twenty-eight  thousand  ministers :  ask  the  three 
million,  three  hundred  thousand  church-members  that 
question :  then  let  the  three  million,  three  hundred 
thousand  slaves  give  answer  to  the  question.  "  The 
dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habitations  of 
cruelty;"  the  American  pulpit  knows  it,  and  defends 
the  cruelty  and  the  darkness  of  the  dark  places  of  the 
earth.  Ask  the  politician  who  says  there  is  no  Higher 
Law  for  the  State ;  ask  the  trader  who  says  there  is  no 
Higher  Law  for  business,  and  who  wishes  to  sign  off 
from  religion,  each  in  his  peculiar  vocation,  —  ask  them 
what  respect  there  is  for  religion  in  America ! 

You  and  I,  my  friends,  live  in  an  age  when  mankind 
has  outgrown  the  popular  theology.  God  be  thanked  ! 
we  have  outgrown  its  idea  of  God,  its  idea  of  Man, 
and  its  idea  of  Religion.  Hence  comes  the  confusion 
of  the  times ;  hence  the  denial  of  religion  in  politics, 
in  trade.  We  live  in  an  age  of  transition.  The  old 
theology  will  pass  away ;  depend  upon  it,  it  will  pass 
away.  Philosophers  have  destroyed  its  philosophical 
basis,  critics  have  destroyed  its  historical  basis,  and  it 
swings  in  the  air  at  both  ends.     That  must  pass  away. 

But  Religion, — that  will  not  fade  out  of  the  human 
heart :  sooner  shall  yonder  sun,  which  those  clouds 
only  hide,  fade  out  of  heaven.  No  !  with  every  advance 
of  man  religion  shines  brighter  and  brighter,  leading 
onward  to  its  perfect  day.     Out  of  this  chaos  of  the- 

13 


146  THE  POPULAE  THEOLOGY. 

ology,  how  beautifully  comes  up  the  manly  and  mild 
and  trusting  face  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth !  Far  off, 
severed  from  us  by  two  thousand  years  of  time,  and 
five  thousand  miles  of  space,  we  see  him  with  his  beati- 
tudes, his  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  of  the  Father 
who  went  after  his  prodigal  son,  having  more  joy  in  his 
heaven  over  the  one  sinner  that  repented  than  over  the 
ninety  and  nine  that  never  went  astray.  How  beauti- 
fully comes  up  that  young  Nazarene,  proclaiming  the  one 
rehgion,  —  love  to  the  Father,  and  love  to  the  Son — to 
Man  here  on  the  earth,  for  mankind  is  the  Son  of  God ! 

Coming  out  of  the  popular  theology,  I  feel  as  one 
who  has  wandered  long  in  some  dark,  subterranean, 
mammoth  cave,  where  the  sound  of  running  water  was 
thunderous  and  sad,  —  lit  by  uncertain  torches,  led  by 
wandering  guides,  where  lifeless  stones  grinned  as  hor- 
rible monsters  at  him,  and  he  hesitated  and  stumbled  at 
every  step,  —  where  the  air  was  contaminated  by  the 
smoke  of  the  torches,  and  his  steps  faltered  and  his 
heart  sank.  I  feel  as  one  coming  out  into  the  glad 
light  of  day,  where  the  sky  is  blue  over  me,  and  the  sun 
sheds  down  its  golden  light,  and  the  ground  is  green 
with  grass,  and  is  beautiful  with  summer  or  with 
autumn  flowers,  fragrant  to  every  sense. 

God  be  thanked  that  we  leave  the  cavern  behind  us, 
with  its  smoky  lights,  its  paths  that  lead  to  wandering ; 
that  God's  heaven  is  over  us  and  his  ground  is  under 
our  feet,  his  eternity  before  us,  and  his  Spirit  in  our 
spirit. 

"  Oh  ye,  who  pined  in  dungeons  for  the  sake 

Of  Truth  which  tyrants  shadowed  with  their  hate, 
Whose  only  crime  was  that  ye  were  awake 
Too  soon,  or  that  your  brethren  slept  too  late ; 
Mountainous  minds,  upon  whose  top  the  great 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  147 

Sunrise  of  knowledge  came,  long  e'er  its  glance 
Fell  on  the  foggy  swamps  of  fear  and  ignorance ; 

"  The  time  shall  come  when  from  your  heights  serene, 
Beyond  the  grave,  ye  will  look  back  and  smile, 
To  see  the  plains  of  earth  all  growing  green, 

Where  Science,  Art,  and  Love  repeat  Heaven's  style, 
And  with  God's  beauty  fill  the  desert  isle, 
'Till  Eden  blooms  where  martyr-fires  have  burned, 
And  to  the  Lord  of  life  all  hearts  and  minds  are  turned. 

*'  The  seeds  are  planted,  and  the  spring  is  near ; 

Ages  of  blight  are  but  a  fleeting  frost : 
Truth  circles  into  Truth.     Each  mote  is  dear 

To  God,  no  drop  of  Ocean  is  e'er  lost, 

No  leaf  forever  dry  and  tempest-tost. 
Life  centres  deathless  underneath  Decay, 
And  no  true  Word  or  Deed  can  ever  pass  away." 


SERMON  V. 

OF    THEISM   AS   THEORY. 

13  ♦  (149^ 


MATTHEW  X.  29. 

ABE    NOT    TWO    SPARROWS    SOLD    FOR  A   FARTHING?     AND    ONE    OF    THEM 
SHALL  NOT  FALI-  ON  THE   GROUND   WITHOUT  TOUR  FATHER. 

aso) 


V. 


OF   SPECULATIVE  THEISM,  KEGARDED  AS  A 
THEORY   OF  THE   UKIVERSE. 


OiT  the  last  four  Sundays  I  spoke  of  Atheism,  re- 
garded first  as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe,  and  then  as 
a  Principle  of  Ethics ;  next  of  the  popular  Christian 
Theology,  also  regarded  first  as  a  Theory  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  then  as  a  Principle  of  Ethics.  I  have  spoken 
of  each,  as  metaphysics  and  as  ethics ;  as  theory  first, 
and  then  as  practice.  Both  subjects  were  painful  to 
touch,  yet  needing  to  be  handled  at  this  day.  It  is 
never  pleasant  to  point  out  and  expose  a  false  theory 
of  philosophy,  or  a  false  system  of  practice,  and  I  am 
glad  I  have  passed  by  that  for  the  present.  A  good 
man  hates  to  kill  any  thing,  —  even  snakes  and  hy- 
aenas. 

I  now  come  to  a  theme  much  more  pleasant :  namely, 
the  Philosophical  Idea  of  God.  So  I  ask  your  atten- 
tion to  a  Sermon  of  Speculative  Theism,  considered  as 
a  Theory  of  the  Universe ;  and  next  Sunday  I  hope  to 
speak  of  Theism  considered  as  a  Principle  of  Practice. 
If  what  I  have  to  say  this  morning  be  somewhat  ab- 
stract and  metaphysical,  and  closely  joined   together, 

(151) 


152  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

and  rather  hard  to  follow,  I  beg  you  will  remember  that 
this  dryness  belongs  to  the  nature  of  the  subject,  which 
I  shall  treat  as  well  as  I  can,  and  as  plain  as  I  may. 

I  use  the  word  Theism,  first,  as  distinguished  from 
Atheism ;  that  is,  from  the  absolute  denial  of  all  possi- 
ble ideas  of  God.  Second,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Popular  Theology,  which  indeed  affirms  God,  but  as- 
cribes to  Him  a  finite  character,  and  makes  Him  a  fero- 
cious God.  And  third,  as  distinguished  from  Deism, 
which  affirms  a  God  without  the  ferocious  character  of 
the  popular  theology,  but  still  starts  from  the  sensa- 
tional philosophy,  abuts  in  materialism,  derives  its  idea 
of  God  solely  by  induction  from  the  phenomena  of  ma- 
terial nature,  or  of  human  history,  leaving  out  of  sight 
the  intuition  of  human  nature  ;  and  so  gets  its  idea  of 
God  solely  from  external  observation,  and  not  at  all 
from  consciousness,  and  thus  accordingly,  represents 
God  as  finite  and  imperfect.  I  use  the  word  as  dis- 
tinguished from  Atheism,  the  denial  of  God ;  from  the 
Popular  Theology,  which  affirms  a  finite  ferocious  God; 
and  from  Deism,  which  affirms  a  finite  God  without 
ferocity.     So  much  for  the  definition  of  terms. 

Some  of  you  may  perhaps  remember  the  introductory 
sermon  of  last  year's  course,  treating  of  the  Infinite  Per- 
fection of  God.  In  that  discourse  I  started  from  human 
nature,  from  the  facts  of  consciousness  in  your  heart 
and  in  my  heart,  assuming  only  the  fidelity  of  the 
human  faculties,  their  power  to  ascertain  truth  in  relig- 
ious matters,  as  in  philosophical  and  mathematical 
matters ;  and  I  showed,  or  think  I  showed,  that  those 
faculties  of  human  nature  —  the  intellectual,  the  moral, 
the    affectional,   and  the    simply  religious  —  in  their 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  153 

joint  and  normal  exercise,  led  to  the  idea  of  God  as 
a  Being  infinitely  powerful,  infinitely  wise,  infinitely 
just,  infinitely  loving,  and  infinitely  holy,  that  is,  faithful 
to  Himself. 

To-day  I  start  with  that  conclusion  as  a  fact.  I  shall 
not  undertake  to  prove  the  actuahty  of  this  idea,  —  the 
existence  of  the  infinite  God ;  I  shall  take  it  for  granted. 
I  did  not  undertake  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  God 
against  Atheism ;  nor  the  non-existence  of  the  ferocious 
God  against  the  Popular  Theology.  At  this  stage  of 
proceeding  I  shall  assume  the  existence  of  the  Infinite 
God,  relying  for  proof  on  what  has  been  said  so  often 
before,  and  still  more,  on  what  is  felt  in  your  conscious- 
ness, without  my  saying  any  thing.  Only  for  clearness 
of  conception,  let  me  state  some  of  the  most  important 
matters  connected  with  the  idea  of  God. 

I.  There  must  be  many  quafities  of  God  not  at  all 
known  to  men,  some  of  them  not  at  all  knowable  by  us ; 
because  we  have  not  the  faculties  to  know  them  by, 
Man's  consciousness  of  God,  and  God's  consciousness 
of  himself  must  differ  immeasurably.  God's  ideas  of 
himself  must  difier  as  much  from  our  idea  of  him,  as 
the  constellation  called  the  Great  Bear  differs  from  one 
of  the  beasts  in  the  pubHc  den  at  Berne.  For  no  man 
can  ever  have  an  exhaustive  conception  of  God,  —  one 
I  mean  which  uses  up  and  comprises  the  whole  of  God. 
We  have  scarcely  an  exhaustive  conception  of  any 
thing.  Certain  properties  and  forces  of  things  we 
know;  the  substance  of  things  is  almost,  if  not  quite 
beyond  our  ken.  But  we  may  have  such  an  idea  of 
God  as  though  incomplete,  is  perfectly  true,  and  com- 
prises no  quality  which  is  not  also  a  quafity  of  God. 
Then  our  idea  of  God  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  only  it 


154  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

does  not  describe  the  whole  of  God.  To  illustrate 
this,  —  a  thimble  cannot  contain  all  the  water  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  at  once,  but  it  may  be  brimful  of  water 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  and  it  may  contain  nothing 
but  water  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  So  our  idea  of 
God,  though  not  containing  the  whole  of  him,  may  yet 
comprise  no  quality  which  is  not  a  quality  of  God,  and 
may  omit  none  which  it  is  needful  for  our  welfare,  that 
we  should  know.  In  the  self-consciousness  of  God 
subject  and  object  are  the  same,  and  he  must  know  all 
his  own  Infinite  Nature.  But  in  our  consciousness  of 
God  the  limitations  of  the  finite  subject  make  it  impos- 
sible that  we  should  comprehend  God  as  he  is  conscious 
of  himself.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  of  the  Infinite 
what  is  knowable  to  finite  man. 

With  qualities  not  knowable  to  us  I  have  nothing  to 
do.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  discuss  the  psychology  and 
metaphysics  of  God.  The  metaphysics  of  man  are  quite 
hard  enough  for  me  to  grapple  with  and  understand. 

II.  Then  as  a  next  thing,  God  must  be  difierent  in 
kind  from  what  I  call  the  Universe ;  that  is  from  Na- 
ture, the  world  of  Matter,  and  from  Spirit,  the  world  of 
Man.  They  are  finite.  He  infinite ;  they  dependent, 
He  self-subsisting ;  they  variable.  He  unchanging.  God 
must  include  both,  matter  and  spirit. 

There  are  two  classes  of  philosophers  often  called 
Atheists;  but  better,  and  perhaps  justly,  called  Pan- 
theists. 

One  of  these  says,  "  there  are  only  material  things  in 
existence,"  resolving  all  into  matter ;  "  The  sum-total 
of  these  material  things  is  God."  That  is  material 
Pantheism.  If  I  mistake  not,  M.  Comte  of  Paris,  and 
the  anonymous  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  155 

History  of  Creation,"  with  their  numerous  coadjutors, 
belong  to  that  class. 

The  other  class  admits  the  existence  of  spirit,  some- 
times resolves  every  thing  into  spirit,  and  says,  "the 
sum  total  of  finite  spirit,  that  is  God."  These  are 
spiritual  Pantheists.  Several  of  the  German  philos- 
ophers, if  I  understand  them,  are  of  that  stamp. 

One  difficulty  with  both  of  these  classes  is  tliis : 
Their  idea  of  God  is  only  the  idea  of  the  world  of 
Nature  and  of  Spirit,  as  it  is  to-day  ;  and  as  the  world 
of  Nature  and  of  Spirit  will  be  fairer  and  wiser  a 
thousand  years  hence  than  it  is  now,  so,  according  to 
them,  God  will  be  fairer  and  wiser  a  thousand  years 
hence  than  he  is  now.  Thus  they  give  you  a  variable 
God,  who  learns  by  experience,  and  who  grows  with 
the  growth  and  strengthens  with  the  strength  of  the 
universe  itself.  According  to  them,  when  there  was  no 
vegetation  in  the  world  of  matter,  God  knew  nothing 
of  a  plant ;  no  more  than  the  stones  on  the  earth. 
When  the  animal  came,  when  man  came,  God  was 
wiser,  and  He  advances  with  the  advance  of  man 
When  Jesus  came.  He  was  a  better  God ;  He  was  a 
wiser  God,  after  Newton  and  La  Place ;  and  was  more 
a  philosophical  Being,  after  those  pantheistic  philos- 
ophers had  taught  him  the  way  to  be  so:  for  their 
God  knows  nothing  until  it  is  either  a  fact  of  observa- 
tion in  finite  .Nature  —  in  the  material  world,  —  or  else 
a  fact  of  consciousness  in  finite  Spirit  —  in  some  man ; 
He  knows  nothing  till  it  is  shown  Him.  That  is  a  fatal 
error  with  Hegel  and  his  followers  in  England  and 
America. 

Mr.  Babbage,  a  most  ingenious  Englishman,  invented 
a  calculating  engiae.  He  builded  wiser  than  he  knew  ; 
for  by  and  by  he  found  that  his  engine  calculated  con- 


156  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

elusions  which  had  never  entered  into  the  thought  of 
Mr.  Babbage  himself.  The  mathematical  engine  out- 
ciphered  its  inventor.  And  these  men  represent  God 
as  being  in  just  that  predicament:  the  world  is  con- 
stantly revealing  things  unknown  before,  and  which 
God  had  not  conceived  of.  As  there  is  a  Progressive 
Development  of  the  powers  of  the  Universe  as  a  whole, 
and  of  each  man,  so  there  is  a  Progressive  Development 
of  God.  He  is  therefore  not  so  much  a  Being,  as  a 
Becoming. 

This  idea  of  an  Improvable  and  Progressive  Deity  is 
not  wholly  a  new  thing.  The  doctrine  was  obscurely 
held  by  some  of  the  ancient  philosophers  in  the  time  of 
Plato. 

If  God  be  Infinite,  then  he  must  be  immanent,  per- 
fectly and  totally  present,  in  Nature  and  in  Spirit.  Thus 
there  is  no  point  of  space,  no  atom  of  matter,  but  God 
is  there  ;  no  point  of  spirit,  and  no  atom  of  soul,  but  God 
is  there.  And  yet  finite  matter  and  finite  spirit  do  not 
exhaust  God.  He  transcends  the  world  of  matter  and 
of  spirit;  and  in  virtue  of  that  transcendence  con- 
tinually makes  the  world  of  matter  fairer,  and  the 
world  of  spirit  wiser.  So  there  is  really  a  progress  in 
the  Manifestation  of  God,  not  a  progress  in  God  the 
manifesting.  In  thought  you  may  annihilate  the  world 
of  matter  and  of  man;  but  you  do  not  thereby  in 
thought  annihilate  the  infinite  God,  or  .subtract  any 
thing  from  the  Existence  of  God.  In  thought  you  may 
double  the  world  of  matter  and  of  man ;  but  in  so 
doing  you  do  not  in  thought  double  the  Being  of  the 
Infinite  God  ;  that  remains  the  same  as  before. 

That  is  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  God  is  infinite 
and  transcends  matter  and  spirit,  and  is  different  in  kind 
firom  the  finite  universe.     This   is   the  great  point  in 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  157 

which  I  differ  most  widely  from  those  philosophers.     I 
find  no  fault  with  them ;  I  differ  from  their  conclusion. 

III.  As  a  third  thing,  the  Infinite  God  must  have  all 
the  Qualities  of  a  perfect  and  complete  Being ;  must 
be  complete  in  the  qualities  of  a  perfect  being,  perfect 
in  the  qualities  of  a  complete  one.  To  state  that  by- 
analysis  which  I  have  just  stated  by  synthesis:  He 
must  have  the  perfection  of  Being,  self-existence;  the 
perfection  of  Power,  almightiness  ;  the  perfection  of 
Mind,  all-knowingness  ;  the  perfection  of  Conscience, 
all-righteousness ;  of  Affection,  all-lovingness ;  of  Soul, 
all-holiness,  perfect  self-fidelity.  Hence,  as  the  result 
of  all  these :  He  must  have  the  perfection  of  Will,  ab- 
solute freedom.  I  mean  to  say,  according  to  this  idea 
of  God,  there  must  be  no  Umitation  to  his  existence,  his 
power,  his  wisdom,  his  justice,  his  love,  his  holiness, 
and  his  freedom ;  none  from  any  outward  cause,  or  any 
inward  cause  whatsoever.  The  classic,  or  Greek  and 
Roman  Idea  of  God,  represented  him  as  finite,  limited 
subjectively  by  elements  of  his  own  character,  objec- 
tively limited  by  the  elements  of  the  material  world ; 
the  popular  theological  idea  in  fact  represents  him  as 
finite,  limited  subjectively  by  selfishness,  wrath,  and 
various  evil  passions,  objectively  by  elements  in  the 
world  of  men  which  continually  prove  refractory,  and 
turn  out  as  he  did  not  intend.  In  this  matter  of  the 
Infinity  of  God,  I  differ  from  the  popular  theology,  as 
well  as  from  the  common  scheme  of  philosophy. 

So  much  for  the  Idea  of  God  considered  as  Infinite ; 
so  much  for  its  diversity  from  the  common  schemes. 


Now  look  at  this  philosophical  Theism,  with  its  Idea 

14 


158  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

of  the  Infinite  God,  as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  Let 
me  divide  the  universe  into  two  great  parts.  One  I 
will  call  the  World  of  Matter,  and  the  other  the  "World 
of  Spirit.  By  the  world  of  matter  I  mean  every  thing, 
except  the  Deity,  known  to  us  that  is  not  man  ;  and  by 
the  world  of  spirit  I  mean  what  is  man,  —  both  man  in 
his  material  substance,  and  in  his  spiritual  substance. 
Let  me  say  a  word  of  each.  For  shortness'  sake,  I  will 
call  the  world  of  matter  Nature.  I  begin  with  this,  as 
it  is  the  least  difficult. 

In  Nature  God  must  be  both  a  perfect  Cause,  and  a 
perfect  Providence. 

I.  Of  God  as  perfect  Cause.  Creation  itself,  the 
non-existent  coming  into  existence,  is  something  unin- 
telligible to  us.  But  this  we  know,  that  the  Infinite 
God  must  be  a  perfect  Creator,  the  sole  and  undisturbed 
author  of  all  that  is  in  Nature.  So  there  must  be  a 
complete  and  perfect  harmony  and  concord  between 
God  and  the  Nature  which  he  creates,  God  and  his 
works  must  be  at  one ;  and  Nature,  so  far  as  it  goes, 
must  represent  the  Will  and  Purpose  of  God,  and  noth- 
ing but  the  will  and  purpose  of  God.  So,  there  can  be 
nothing  in  Nature  which  God  did  not  put  in  Natmre 
from  himself. 

Well,  God  must  have  made  Nature  first,  from  a  per- 
fect Motive ;  next,  of  perfect  Material ;  third,  for  a  per- 
fect Purpose  or  end ;  fourth,  as  perfect  Means  to  achieve 
that  purpose.  That  is  —  the  motive  for  creation,  the 
purpose  ©f  creation,  must  be  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  infinity  of  God ;  in  harmony  with  his  infinite  power, 
wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  holiness :  the  material  of 
Nature,  and  the  means  therein,  wdth  the  constant  modes 
of  operation  thereof — the  Laws  of  Nature,  must  be 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  159 

perfectly  adequate  to  the  perfect  purpose,  and  so  must 
be  in  complete  harmony  with  the  Infinite  God;  with 
Ms  infinite  power,  infinite  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and 
hoKness.  That  is  very  plain,  following  unavoidably 
from  the  Idea  of  God  as  Infinite. 

Now  a  perfect  Motive  for  creation,  —  what  will  that 
be?  It  must  be  absolute  Love  producing  a  desire  to 
bless  every  thing  which  he  creates ;  that  is,  a  desire  to 
confer  such  a  form  and  degree  of  welfare  on  each  thing 
w^hich  he  makes  as  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
character  and  nature  of  that  thing  made ;  that  is,  with 
its  highest  form  and  degree  of  welfare.  Absolute  Love 
is  a  perfect  motive. 

A  perfect  Purpose  or  end  of  creation  is  the  achieve- 
ment of  that  bhss ;  not  the  achievement  thereof  to-day, 
but  ultimately.  Perfect  Material  and  Means  are  those 
which  perfectly  achieve  that  purpose;  not  to-day,  or 
when  I  will,  or  when  the  thing  created  wills,  but  when 
the  infinite  wisdom  and  love  of  God  wills. 

The  Infinite  God  must  create  all  from  a  perfect 
motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose  of  perfect  material,  as 
perfect  means ;  for  you  cannot  conceive  of  a  God  in- 
finitely powerful,  wise,  just,  loving,  and  holy,  creating 
any  thing  fi*om  an  evil  motive,  for  an  evil  purpose,  firom 
evil  material,  or  as  evil  means.  No  more  can  you  con- 
ceive of  the  Infinite  God  creating  any  thing  from  an 
imperfect  motive,  for  an  imperfect  purpose,  of  imperfect 
material,  or  as  imperfect  means.  Each  of  these  sup- 
positions is  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  the 
Infinite  God ;  for  He  can  have  only  perfect  motives, 
perfect  purposes,  perfect  material,  and  perfect  means  to 
create  out  of,  and  to  create  by.  This  being  so,  you  see 
that  the  selfishness  and  destructiveness  ascribed  to  God 
in  the  popular  theology  are  at  once  struck  out  of  exist- 


160  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

ence.     For   such    selfishness    and   destructiveness    are 
absolutely  impossible  to  the  Infinite  God. 

11.  Next,  of  God  as  perfect  Providence.  Creation 
and  Providence  are  but  modifications  of  the  same  func- 
tion. Creation  is  momentary  providence;  providence, 
perpetual  creation:  one  is  described  by  a  point;  the 
other  by  a  line.  Now  God  is  just  as  much  present  in 
a  blade  of  grass,  or  an  atom  of  mahogany,  this  day 
and  in  every  moment  of  its  existence,  as  he  was  at  the 
instant  of  its  creation.  Men  say,  "  When  God  created 
matter  he  was  present  therein."  Very  true !  but  he  is 
just  as  present  therein,  with  all  his  powers,  and  just  as 
active  with  all  his  perfections,  at  every  moment  while 
that  matter  exists,  as  he  was  when  it  was  first  created. 
Men  tell  us,  when  they  read  the  Bible,  "  How  grand  it 
must  have  been  to  have  stood  in  the  presence  of  God 
when  Moses  miraculously  smote  the  rock,  which  gushed 
with  miraculous  water."  But  every  drop  of  water, 
which  falls  firom  my  roof  in  a  shower,  or  firom  my 
finger,  thus,  as  I  lift  it  in  this  cup,  —  has  as  much  the 
presence  of  God  in  it  as  when,  in  Biblical  phrase, 
"  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  the  Sons  of  God 
shouted  for  joy,"  at  the  creation  of  water  itself.  It 
cannot  be  created  without  God ;  it  cannot  subsist 
without  God. 

Here,  too,  in  his  Providence,  the  motive,  the  end,  the 
material  and  means,  must  be  infinitely  perfect.  Let 
me  develop  this  a  moment. 

God  at  the  creation  must  have  known  the  action  and 
history  of  each  thing  which  he  called  into  being  just  as 
well  as  he  knows  it  now ;  for  God's  knowledge  is  not 
a  becoming  wiser  by  experien^^e,  but  a  being  wise  by 
nature.     The  Infinite  God  mus*^  know  every  movement 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  161 

of  every  particle  of  matter.  We  generally  assent  to 
that  in  the  gross,  and  reject  it  in  the  detail.  Let  me 
give  an  example. 

All  the  powers,  and  consequently  all  the  action, 
movements,  and  history  of  the  whole  Universe  of  mat- 
ter, whereof  this  solar  system  is  a  part,  a  single  — 

"  Branch  of  Stars  we  see, 
Hung  in  the  golden  galaxy ;  " 

all  the  powers,  actions,  movements,  and  history  of  the 
solar  system  itself,  of  its  primaries  and  secondaries,  must 
have  been  completely  and  perfectly  known  to  God  be- 
fore the  universe,  or  any  single  "  branch  of  stars,"  had 
its  existence.  So  the  powers  and  consequent  history 
and  movement  of  every  particular  thing  on  each  of  these 
orbs  must  have  been  known.  The  action  and  history 
of  the  mineral  matter  on  the  earth  in  its  inorganic  form, 
in  the  form  of  crystal,  liquid,  gas ;  —  the  action  and 
history  of  vegetable  matter  in  the  fucus,  the  lichen,  and 
the  tree; — and  so  of  animal  matter,  in  the  mollusk,  the 
eagle,  and  the  elephant,  —  all  must  have  been  completely 
and  perfectly  known  by  God  before  their  creation ;  eter- 
nally known  to  him.  The  powers,  and  so  the  history, 
of  each  atom  in  Nature  must  have  been  as  thoroughly 
known  to  the  Mind  of  the  Universe  a  million  million 
years  ago,  as  at  this  day ;  in  their  cause  as  well  as  by 
their  effects. 

For  example,  God  must  have  known,  at  the  moment 
of  creation,  the  present  position  of  this  crescent  moon 
which  beautifies  the  early  evening  hour ;  and  he  must 
have  known,  too,  the  history  of  these  molecules  of  car- 
bon that  make  up  the  cotton  thread  which  binds  the 
sheets  of  this  sermon  together. 

To  say  it  short,  the  statics  and  dynamics  of  the 
14* 


162  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

universe,  and  of  each  atom  thereof,  must  have  been 
eternally  and  thoroughly  known  to  God.  And  each 
atom  with  its  statical  and  dynamical  powers,  —  the 
mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  forces  of  the  universe  — 
must  have  been  created  by  him,  from  perfect  motives,  of 
perfect  material,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  perfect 
means  ;  they  must  be  continually  sustained  by  him,  and 
he  must  be  just  as  present  and  just  as  active  in  each 
moment  of  the  existence  of  any  one  of  these  things  as 
at  the  creation  thereof,  or  at  the  creation  of  the  all 
of  things.  So,  then,  each  of  these  must  have  been 
created  with  a  perfect  knowledge  of  its  powers,  ac- 
tions, movements,  and  history,  and  created  from  love 
as  motive,  for  ultimate  good  as  purpose,  of  materials 
proportionate  to  the  motive,  and  so  adequate  to  the 
end,  and  accordingly  provided  with  the  means  of  ac- 
complishing that  purpose;  for  the  infinite  perfection 
of  God  would  allow  no  absolute  evil,  no  absolute 
imperfection,  in  his  motive,  or  his  material,  in  his  pur- 
pose, or  his  means.  If  there  were  any  such  absolute 
evil  or  imperfection  in  the  created,  it  could  only  have 
come  from  an  absolute  evil  or  imperfection  in  the  Cre- 
ator ;  that  is,  from  a  lack  of  infinite  power,  wisdom, 
justice,  or  love — because  God  has  not  love  enough  to 
wish  all  things  well;  or  justice  enough  to  will  them 
well;  or  wisdom  enough  to  contrive  them  well;  or 
power  enough  to  make  them  well. 

Each  thing  which  God  has  made  has  a  Right  to  be 
created  from  perfect  motives,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  from 
perfect  material,  and  as  perfect  means ;  and  a  right, 
also,  to  be  perfectly  provided  for.  I  know,  to  some  men 
it  will  sound  irreverent  to  speak  of  the  Right  of  the 
created  in  relation  to  the  Creator,  and  of  the  consequent 
Duty  and  Obligation  of  the  Creator  in  relation  to  the 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  163 

created.  But  the  Infinite  God  is  infinitely  just,  and  it 
is  with  the  highest  reverence  that  I  ask,  "  Shall  not  the 
God  of  all  the  earth  do  right?"  It  is  the  highest  rev- 
erence for  the  Creator  to  say  that  "  He  gives  his  crea- 
tures a  Right  to  him,  to  him  as  infinite  Cause,  to  him 
as  infinite  Providence ; "  and  I  count  it  impious  to  say 
that  God  has  a  right  to  create  even  a  worm  from  im- 
perfect motives,  for  an  imperfect  purpose,  of  imperfect 
material,  as  imperfect  means.  This  right  of  the  crea- 
ture depends  on  the  nature  of  the  thing,  on  its  quality 
as  a  creation  of  the  infinite  God ;  not  on  the  quantity 
of  being  it  has  received  from  Him.  So  of  course  it  is 
equal  in  all ;  the  same  in  the  smallest  "  motes  that  peo- 
ple the  sunbeams,"  and  the  greatest  man;  all  have  a 
birthright  to  the  perfect  Providence  of  the  Infinite  God  ; 
an  unalienable  right  to  protection  by  his  infinite  power, 
wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  holiness.  This  lien  on  the 
Infinity  of  God  vests  in  the  substance  of  their  finite 
nature,  and  is  not  to  be  voided  by  any  accident  of  their 
history,  for  that  accident  must  have  been  known  and 
provided  for  as  one  of  the  consequences  of  their  powers. 
Each  thing  has  the  infinite  perfection  of  God  as  guar- 
antee to  that  right.  God  is  security  for  the  universe, 
and  his  hand  is  indorsed  on  every  great  and  little  thing 
which  he  has  made.  Then,  if  am  sure  of  God  and  his 
infinity,  I  am  sure  beforehand  of  the  ultimate  welfare  of 
every  thing  which  God  has  made,  for  the  Infinite  Fa- 
ther is  the  pledge  and  collateral  security,  the  indorser 
therefor. 

We  cannot  comprehend  the  details  of  this  Providence, 
more  than  of  creating,  nor  fully  understand  the  mode  of 
attaining  the  end ;  the  mode  of  terminating,  originating, 
and  sustaining  are  equally  unintelligible  to  us  ;  but  the 
fact  we  know  from  the  idea  of  God  as  Infinite.     As  we 


164  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

cannot  with  a  Gunter's  chain  measure  the  distance  be- 
tween the  sun  and  the  earth,  but  as  by  calculation, 
starting  from  facts  of  internal  consciousness  and  ex- 
ternal observation,  we  can  measure  it  with  greater  pro- 
portionate exactness  than  a  carpenter  could  measure  the 
desk  under  my  hand :  —  so  we  cannot  understand  God's 
mode  of  operation  as  Cause  or  Providence,  more  than 
an  Indian  baby,  newly  born,  in  Shawneetown,  could 
understand  the  astronomer's  mode  of  operation  in  cal- 
culating the  distance  between  the  earth  and  the  sun ; 
but  as  we  have  this  idea  of  God,  though  we  know  not 
the  mode  of  operation,  the  middle  terms  which  intervene 
betwixt  the  purpose  and  the  achievement,  we  are  yet 
sure  of  the  fact  that  the  motive,  purpose,  material,  and 
means  are  all  proportionate  to  the  nature  of  the  Creator, 
and  adequate  for  the  welfare  of  the  created. 

In  Nature  God  is  the  only  Cause,  the  only  Provi- 
dence, the  only  Power;  the  law  of  Nature,  —  that  is,  the 
constant  mode  of  action  of  the  forces  of  the  material 
world  —  represents  the  modes  of  action  of  God  Him- 
self, his  thought  made  visible ;  and  as  he  is  infinite, 
unchangeably  perfect,  and  perfectly  unchangeable,  his 
mode  of  action  is  therefore  constant  and  universal, 
so  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  violation 
of  God's  constant  mode  of  action ;  for  there  is  no 
power  to  violate  it  except  God  himself,  and  the  in- 
finitely perfect  God  could  not  violate  his  own  perfect 
modes  of  action.  And  accordingly  there  can  be  no 
chance,  no  evil,  no  imperfection,  in  motive  or  purpose, 
in  material  or  means,  or  in  the  modes  of  action  thereof. 
Everywhere  is  calculated  order,  nowhere  chance  and 
confusion ;  everywhere  regular,  constant  modes  of  ac- 
tion of  the  forces  in  the  material  world,  unvarying  and 
eternal  laws,  nowhere  is  there  an  extemporaneous  mir- 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  165 

acle.  Men  have  their  precarious  makeshifts ;  the  In- 
finite has  no  tricks  and  subterfuges, —  not  a  Whim  in 
God,  and  so  not  a  Miracle  in  Nature.  Seeming  chance 
is  real  direction ;  what  looks  like  evil  in  Nature  is  real 
good.  The  sparrow  that  falls  to-day  does  not  fall  to 
ruin,  but  to  ultimate  welfare.  Though  we  know  not 
the  mode  of  operation,  there  must  be  another  world  for 
the  sparrow  as  for  man. 


So  much  for  this  Theism  as  a  Theory  of  the  World 
of  Matter.  Now  a  word  for  it  as  a  Theory  of  the 
World  of  Spirit,  of  the  World  of  Man.  This  shall  in- 
clude man  so  far  as  he  is  matter ;  and  so  far  as  he  is 
matter  and  something  more. 

Look  at  this  first  in  the  most  general  way,  in  relation 
to  Human  Nature,  —  to  Mankind  as  a  whole ;  then  I 
will  come  down  to  particulars.  Here  the  same  thing  is 
to  be  said  as  of  Nature ;  namely,  the  Infinite  God  must 
be  a  perfect  Cause  thereof,  and  have  created  the  world 
of  man  from  perfect  motives,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  of 
perfect  material,  as  perfect  means.  God  has  no  other 
motive,  purpose,  material,  or  means.  The  perfect  mo- 
tive must  be  Absolute  Love  —  producing  the  desire  to 
bless  the  world  of  man,  that  is,  the  desire  to  confer 
thereon  a  form  and  degree  of  welfare  which  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  entire  nature  of  man.  The  perfect 
purpose  must  be  the  attainment  of  that  bliss ;  the  ulti- 
mate attainment  not  to-day,  or  when  man  wills,  but 
when  the  Infinite  God  wills.  Perfect  material  is  that 
which  is  capable  of  this  welfare  ;  and  perfect  means  are 
such  as  achieve  it. 

So  much  for  God  considered  as  a  perfect  Cause  in 


166  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

the  world  of  man.     I  need  not  here  further  repeat  what 
I  just  said  of  creation  in  the  world  of  matter. 

But  God  must  be  also  perfect  Providence  for  the 
world  of  man  ;  He  must  be  perpetually  present  therein, 
in  each  portion  thereof.  Men  think  that  God  was  pres- 
ent in  some  moment  of  time,  at  the  creation  of  man- 
kind. Very  true !  but  in  each  moment  of  mankind's 
existence  since,  God  is  just  as  present ;  for  providence 
is  a  continuous  line  of  creations,  and  God  is  as  much 
present,  and  as  much  active,  at  every  point  of  that  line 
as  at  the  beginning  or  end  thereof.  I  know  men  speak 
of  yielding  up  the  spirit  and  going  out  of  the  body, 
going  to  God.  Is  not  God  about,  within,  and  around 
us,  while  we  are  in  the  body,  just  as  much  as  when  we 
shake  off  the  known  and  enter  on  that  untried  being  ? 

God  must  have  known  at  the  creation  all  the  action 
and  history  of  the  world  of  man  as  well  as  of  Nature. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  ten  thousand  years  ago 
God  knew  less  of  human  history  than  he  knows  to- 
day. That  would  be  to  make  God  imperfect  in  his 
wisdom,  growing  wiser  by  experience.  Napoleon's 
coup  d*  etat  was  a  surprise  to  mankind  ten  months  ago. 
Do  you  think  it  was  an  astonishment  to  God  ten 
months  ago  ?  was  it  not  infinitely  known  hundreds  of 
millions  of  years  ago  ;  eternally  known  ?  It  must  have 
been  so. 

I  know  the  question  is  here  more  complicated  than 
in  Nature,  for  in  Nature  there  is  only  one  force,  the 
direct  statical  and  dynamical  action  of  matter  ;  and  ac- 
cordingly it  is  easy  to  calculate  the  action  and  result  of 
mechanical,  vegetable,  electrical,  and  vital  forces.  But 
in  the  world  of  man  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  free- 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  167 

dom,  which  seems  to  make  the  question  difficult.  In 
that  part  of  the  world  of  Nature  not  endowed  with 
animal  life,  there  is  no  margin  of  oscillation ;  and  you 
may  know  just  where  the  moon  wiU  be  to-night,  and 
where  it  will  be  a  thousand  years  hence.  The  constant 
forces,  with  their  compensations,  may  all  be  known , 
and  so  every  nutation  of  the  moon  is  calculable  with 
entire  certainty.  The  modes  of  action  there  are  as  lit- 
tle variable  as  the  maxims  of  geometry.  The  moon's 
node  is  an  invariable  consequent  of  material  necessity. 
When  a  star  with  fiery  hair  came  splendoring  through 
the  night,  it  filled  mediaeval  astronomers  with  amaze- 
ment ;  and  celibate  priests,  divorced  from  Nature,  shook 
with  superstitious  fear  as  it  wrote  its  hieroglyphic  of 
God  over  Byzantium  or  Rome :  was  God  astonished  at 
his  wandering  and  hairy  star  ? 

In  the  world  of  animals  there  is  a  small  margin  of 
oscillation ;  but  you  are  pretty  sure  to  know  what  the 
animals  will  do,  that  the  beaver  will  build  his  dam  and 
the  wren  her  nest  just  as  their  fathers  built ;  that  every 
bee  next  summer  will  make  her  six-sided  cell  with  the 
same  precision  and  geometric  economy  of  material  and 
space  wherewith  her  ancestors  wrought  ten  thousand 
years  ago,  solving  the  problem  of  isoperimetrical 
figures. 

But  man  has  a  certain  amount  of  freedom  ;  a  larger 
margin  of  oscillation,  wherein  he  vibrates  from  side  to 
side.  The  nod  of  Lord  Burleigh  is  a  variable  contin- 
gent of  human  caprice.  Hence  it  is  thought  that  God 
could  not  foreknow  the  oscillations  of  caprice  in  the 
human  race,  in  the  Adamitic  Cain  of  ancient  poetry,  or 
the  Napoleonic  Cain  of  contemporaneous  history,  till 
after  they  took  place.  But  that  conclusion  comes  only 
from  putting  our  limitations  on  God.     It  is  difficult  for 


168  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

the  astronomer's  little  boy  to  measure  the  cradle  he 
sleeps  in,  or  to  tell  what  time  it  is  by  the  nursery  clock ; 
but  the  astronomer  can  measure  the  vast  orbit  of  Le- 
verrier's  star  before  seeing  it,  and  correct  his  nursery 
clock  by  the  great  dial  hung  up  in  heaven  itself :  yet 
the  difference  between  the  mind  of  the  astronomer's  boy 
and  the  mind  of  the  astronomer  is  nothing  compared 
to  the  odds  between  finite  intellect  and  the  infinite  un- 
derstanding of  God.  So  though  the  greater  complica- 
tion makes  it  more  difficult  for  you  and  me  to  under- 
stand the  consciousness  of  free  men,  whose  feelings, 
thoughts,  and  consequent  actions  are  such  manifold 
contingents,  it  is  not  at  all  more  difficult  for  God. 

Before  the  creation  the  Infinite  God,  as  perfect  Cause 
and  Providence,  must  have  known  all  the  powers  and 
consequent  actions,  movements,  and  history  of  the  col- 
lective world  of  men,  and  each  individual  thereof.  For, 
either  man  has  no  freedom  at  all,  or  he  has  some  free- 
dom of  will. 

In  the  first  case,  if  he  has  no  freedom,  no  margin  of 
oscillation,  the  fore-knowableness  of  his  actions  does 
not  differ  from  that  of  the  world  of  matter ;  and  the 
nutation  of  the  moon  and  the  nod  of  Lord  Burleigh  are 
equally  the  invariable  consequent  of  material  or  human 
necessity.  Then  God  is  the  only  force  in  the  human 
world,  and  of  course,  without  difficulty,  knows  all  its 
action,  for  a  knowledge  of  the  world  is  only  part  of  his 
consciousness  of  himself;  the  treachery  of  Judas  and 
the  faithfulness  of  Jesus  are  then  but  facts  of  the  divine 
self-consciousness. 

If  there  be  freedom,  then  God,  as  the  perfect  Cause 
of  man's  freedom  of  will,  must  have  perfectly  under- 
stood the  powers  of  that  freedom ;  and  understanding 
perfectly  the  powers,  he  knew  perfectly  all  the  actions, 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  169 

movementsj  and  history  thereof,  at  the  moment  of  crea- 
tion as  well  as  to-day.  The  perfect  Cause  must  know 
the  consequence  of  his  perfect  creation ;  and  knowing 
the  cause  and  the  effects  thereof,  as  perfect  Providence, 
and  working  from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  perfect  pur- 
pose, with  perfect  material  and  by  perfect  means,  he 
must  so  arrange  aU  things,  that  the  material  shall  be 
capable  of  ultimate  welfare  ;  and  must  use  means  pro- 
portionate to  the  nature  and  adequate  to  the  purpose. 
So  the  quantity  of  human  oscillation  with  aU  the  con- 
sequences thereof  must  of  course  be  perfectly  known  to 
God  before  the  creation  as  well  as  after  the  special 
events  come  to  pass  ;  for  to  God  contingents  of  caprice 
and  consequents  of  necessity  must  be  equally  clear, 
both  before  and  after  the  event.  Little  boys,  under  a 
capricious  schoolmaster,  learn  the  constants  of  his 
anger's  ebb  or  flow  ; 

"  Full  well  the  boding  tremblers  learn  to  trace 
The  day's  disaster  in  his  morning  face." 

And  do  you  think  the  infinite  God  is  astonished  at 
revolutions  in  Italy,  or  the  discovery  of  ether  ?  because 
a  hyaena,  stealthily  and  at  night,  Idlls  a  girl  in  an  Abys- 
sinian town,  or  a  kidnapper,  as  stealthily  and  also  by 
night,  destroys  a  man  in  Boston  ?  The  hyaena  crouch- 
ing in  his  den,  the  kidnapper  lurking  in  his  office,  are 
both  known  to  God. 

Though  human  caprice  and  freedom  be  a  contingent 
force,  yet  God  knows  human  caprice  when  he  makes  it, 
knows  exactly  the  amount  of  that  contingent  force,  all 
its  actions,  movements,  and  history,  and  what  it  will 
bring  about.  And  as  he  is  an  infinitely  wise,  just,  and 
loving  Cause  and  Providence,  so  there  can  be  no  abso- 

15 


170  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

lute  evil  or  imperfection  in  the  world  of  man,  more  than 
in  the  world  of  matter,  or  in  God  himself. 

So  much  for  this  Theism  as  a  Theory  of  the  World 
of  Man  as  a  Whole,  in  its  most  general  form. 

Now  see  the  concrete  application  thereof  in  the  Gen- 
eral Human  Life  —  in  the  life  of  nations.  In  creating 
mankind  God  must  have  known  there  would  come  the 
great  races  of  men,  —  Ethiopian,  Malay,  Tartar,  Amer- 
ican, Caucasian.  He  must  have  known  there  would 
come  such  families  of  the  Caucasian  as  the  Slavic, 
Classic,  Celtic,  Teutonic;  such  stocks  of  the  Teutonic 
as  the  Scandinavian,  the  German,  the  Saxon ;  of  the 
Saxon  such  nations  as  England  and  America ;  in  Iheir 
history  such  events  as  the  American  Revolution,  the 
Mexican  War,  and  the  like.  I  mean  that  God  as  per- 
fect Cause  must  have  perfectly  known  all  these  things 
from  eternity  as  well  as  now.  History  is  a  surprise  to 
us,  not  to  God.  The  breaking  out  of  the  Mexican 
War,  the  capture  of  Mexico,  the  failure  or  success  of  a 
general,  might  be  an  astonishment  to  men ;  God  was 
not  wiser  afterwards  than  before.  As  perfect  Cause 
and  Providence,  he  must  have  arranged  all  things  so 
that  mankind  as  a  whole  shall  attain  that  bliss  which 
his  perfect  motive  and  perfect  purpose  require,  which  is 
indispensable  to  his  perfect  material  and  his  perfect 
means.  All  the  powers  and  consequent  actions,  move- 
ments, and  history  of  mankind  must  therefore  have 
been  known  and  provided  for.  The  savage,  the  bar- 
barous, the  half-civilized,  and  the  civilized  —  the  feudal 
and  commercial  periods,  —  and  others  yet  in  store, 
must  have  been  known  and  provided  for.  The  whole 
religious  history  of  man.  Atheism,  Fetichism,  Polythe- 
ism, Monotheism,  —  the  Monotheism  of  the  Hebrews 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  171 

and  of  the  Christians,  —  must  have  been  known.  The 
rise,  decline,  and  fall,  of  Egypt,  India,  Persia,  Judea, 
Greece,  Rome,  and  Byzantium,  must  have  been  as  well 
understood  by  God  at  creation  as  now  ;  and  as  perfect 
Providence  he  must  have  provided  for  the  rise,  decline, 
and  fall,  thereof,  so  that  they  should  be  steps  forward, 
towards  ultimate  bliss,  and  not  from  it.  He  must  have 
given  man  his  power  of  freewill  as  all  other  powers, 
from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect 
material,  and  as  perfect  means ;  and  of  course  it  must 
achieve  that  purpose  for  mankind  as  a  whole,  for  those 
great  races,  —  Ethiopian,  Malay,  Tartar,  American, 
Caucasian ;  for  those  families,  —  Slavic,  Classic,  Celtic, 
Teutonic ;  for  those  tribes,  —  Scandinavian,  German, 
Saxon ;  for  every  nation,  —  England,  America.  The 
great  events  of  their  history,  —  the  American  Revo- 
lution, the  Mexican  War,  —  and  every  other,  must 
be  so  overruled  and  balanced  that  they  shall  not 
contribute  to  the  achievement  of  the  purpose  of  God. 
And  what  is  true  of  the  whole  must  be  true  of  each ; 
God  must  be  perfect  Providence  for  one  as  well  as 
for  another,  and  so  arrange  these  that  they  all  shall 
come  to  ultimate  bHss. 

Therefore  as  you  look  on  the  sad  aspect  of  the  world 
at  present,  —  on  Italy,  ridden  by  the  Pope  and  priest ; 
on  Austria,  Hungary,  Germany,  the  spark  of  freedom 
trodden  out  by  the  imperial  or  royal  hoof ;  on  France, 
crushed  by  her  own  armies  at  the  command  of  a  cun- 
ning voluptuary ;  on  Ireland,  trodden  down  by  the  cap- 
italists of  Britain  ;  on  the  American  slave,  manacled  by 
State  and  Church,  —  you  know,  first,  that  God  foresaw 
all  this  at  the  creation,  as  a  consequence  of  the  forces 
which  he  put  into  human  nature  ;  next,  you  know  that 
he  provides  for  it  all,  so  that  it  shall  not  interfere  with 


172  SPECULATIVE.  THEISM. 

the  ultimate  bliss  of  the  Italian,  Pope-ridden  and  priest- 
ridden;  of  the  Austrian,  Hungarian,  German,  from 
whose  heart  the  imperial  or  royal  hoof  has  trod  the 
spark  of  liberty ;  of  the  Frenchman,  the  victim  of  a 
voluptuous  tyrant ;  of  the  L-ishman,  trodden  down  by 
the  British  capitalist ;  and  of  the  American  slave,  fet- 
tered by  the  American  Church  and  manacled  by  the 
American  State.  God  made  the  world  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  these  partial  evils  would  take  place  ;  and  they 
take  place  with  his  infinite  knowledge,  and  under  his 
infinite  Providence.  So  when  we  see  these  evils,  we 
know  that  though  immense  they  are  partial  evils  com- 
pensated by  constants  somewhere,  and  provided  for  in 
the  infinite  engineering  of  God,  so  that  they  shall  be 
the  cause  of  some  ultimate  good.  For  mankind  has  a 
Right  to  be  perfectly  created ;  each  race,  family,  tribe, 
nation,  has  a  Right  to  be  created  from  perfect  motives 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect  material,  and  with  the 
means  to  achieve  that  purpose ;  not  at  the  time,  when 
Russia  and  Montenegro  will,  or  when  you  and  I  will, 
but  when  infinite  wisdom,  justice,  love,  knows  that  it 
is  best.  And  sad  as  the  world  looks,  God  knew  it  all, 
provided  for  it  all ;  and  its  welfare,  its  ultimate  triumph 
is  insured  at  the  office  of  the  Infinite  God.  His  hand 
is  indorsed  on  each  race,  each  family,  each  tribe,  each 
nation  of  mankind.  You  cannot  suppose  —  as  writers 
of  the  Old  Testament  do  —  that  the  affairs  of  the 
world  look  desperate  to  God,  and  he  repents  having 
made  mankind,  or  any  fraction  of  the  human  race. 

See  this  Theism  in  its  application  to  Individual  Hu- 
man Ijife ;  your  life  and  mine.  God  is  perfect  Cause 
and  perfect  Providence  for  me  and  you.  Before  the 
creation  he   knew  every  thing   that  I  shall  do,   every 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  173 

thing  that  I  shall  suffer,  every  thing  tnat  I  shall  be ; 
provided  for  it  all,  so  that  absolute  bliss  must  be  the 
welfare  of  each  of  us  at  last.  The  evils  —  that  is,  the 
suffering  in  mind,  body,  and  estate,  the  imperfect  bliss, 
my  failing  to  attain  the  outward  or  inward  condition  of 
this  welfare,  —  these  must  come  either  from  my  nature, 
my  human  nature  as  man,  my  individual  nature  as  the 
son  of  John  and  Hannah ;  or  from  my  circumstances 
that  are  about  me ;  or,  as  a  third  thing,  from  the  joint 
action  of  these  two. 

God  as  perfect  Cause  must  have  known  my  nature, 
my  circumstances,  the  effect  of  their  joint  action ;  as 
perfect  Providence,  he  must  have  arranged  things  so 
that  nature  and  circumstances  shall  work  out  for  me, 
and  for  everybody,  all  this  ultimate  bliss  which  the  per- 
fect motive  can  desire  as  a  perfect  purpose,  which  per- 
fect materials  can  achieve  as  perfect  means.  My 
individual  suffering,  error,  sin,  must  have  been  equally 
foreseen,  fore-cared  for,  and  used  in  the  great  house- 
keeping of  the  Eternal  Mother  as  a  means  to  accom- 
pHsh  the  purpose  of  ultimate  welfare. 

This  must  be  true  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  crucified, 
and  of  Judas  Iscariot  who  betrayed  him  to  the  cross ; 
of  the  St.  Domingo  hero  who  rotted  in  his  dungeon, 
and  of  Napoleon  the  Great,  who  locked  his  dungeon 
door  —  himself  one  day  to  be  jailed  on  a  rock,  with 
Ocean  mounting  guard  over  this  Prometheus  of  his- 
toric times ;  of  theistic  John  Huss  who  blazed  in  his 
fire,  and  of  the  Twenty-third  John,  the  perjured  pope 
of  Rome,  who  lit  that  fire  five  hundred  miles  from 
home. 

As  at  the  creation  of  the  world  of  matter  God  knew 
where  the  solar  system  would  be  in  space,  where  the 
molecules  of  carbon  which  form  the  tie  that  binds  my 

15* 


174  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

sermon  together,  would  be  on  this  seventeenth  of  Octo- 
ber, eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-two  years  after  the 
cradling  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  —  as  He  arranged  the 
universe  so  that  the  solar  system  and  these  molecules  of 
carbon  should  harmonize  together,  —  as  he  knew  of  the 
rise,  decline,  and  fall  of  states,  and  arranged  all  these 
things  so  as  to  harmonize  with  the  march  of  man  to- 
wards greater  bliss  ;  —  so  he  must  have  known  where 
this  little  atom  of  spirit  which  I  call  Me  would  be  this 
day,  —  what  thoughts,  feelings,  will,  and  suffering  I 
should  have,  and  he  must  make  all  these  harmonize 
with  my  march  towards  that  ultimate  bliss,  which  my 
finite  human  nature  needs  to  take,  and  which  his 
infinite  divine  nature  needs  to  give. 

God  is  responsible  for  his  own  creation,  his  world  of 
matter,  and  his  world  of  man;  for  mankind  in  general; 
for  you  and  me.  God's  work  is  all  warranted.  Each 
man  has  a  right  to  perfect  creation,  —  creation  from 
perfect  motives,  of  perfect  material,  as  perfect  means 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  God  has  no  other  purpose,  no 
other  means,  no  other  material,  no  other  motive.  He  is 
the  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  is  security 
for  the  ultimate  welfare  of  the  sparrow  that  falls ;  for 
mankind  groping  its  dim  and  perilous  way ;  for  you  and 
me  darkly  feeling  our  way  along,  often  falling  into  pain, 
want,  misery,  and  sin.  God  as  Cause,  and  God  as 
Providence  has  still  means  to  bring  us  back  and  lead 
us  home.  I  have  a  natural,  unaHenable  Right  to  the 
Providence  of  the  Infinite  God ;  this  Providence  is  the 
Duty  of  God,  inseparable  from  his  Infinity.  If  I  am 
sure  that  God  is  infinite,  tlien  all  else  that  is  good  I  am 
sure  of,  for  every  thing  which  God  makes  is  stamped  by 
his  hand  with  an  unalienable  Right  to  Him  as  infinite 
Cause  and  infinite  Providence. 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  175 

As  God  was  present  at  the  creation  of  matter  and  of 
mankind,  present  with  all  his  infinite  perfection,  and 
active  therewith,  —  so  is  he  present  and  active  with  me 
to-day  with  all  his  infinite  perfections ;  then  as  Cause, 
so  now  as  Providence.  And  do  you  think  the  universe 
will  fail  of  its  purpose  with  Infinite  God  as  its  Provi- 
dence and  its  Cause  ?  Do  you  think  any  nation,  any 
single  human  soul  can  ever  fail  of  achieving  this  ulti- 
mate bliss,  with  Infinite  God  as  its  Cause  and  Infinite 
God  as  its  Providence  ?  Why,  so  long  as  God  is  God 
it  is  impossible  that  his  motive  and  purpose  should 
fail  to  design  good  for  all  and  each  —  or  his  material 
and  means  fail  to  achieve  that  ultimate  good. 


Well,  since  these  things  are  so,  how  beautiful  appears 
the  Material  World !  There  is  no  fortuitous  concourse 
of  atoms,  which  the  atheist  talks  of;  there  is  no  uni- 
verse of  selfishness,  no  grim  despot  who  grinds  the  world 
under  his  heels  and  then  spurns  it  off  to  hell,  as  the 
popular  theology  scares  us  withal.  Every  thing  is  a 
thought  of  Infinite  God,  and  in  studying  the  move- 
ments of  the  solar  system,  or  the  composition  of  an  ul- 
timate ceU  arrested  in  a  crystal,  developed  in  a  plant ; 
in  tracing  the  grains  of  phosphorus  in  the  brain  of  man  ; 
or  in  studying  the  atoms  which  compose  the  fusil-oil  in 
a  drop  of  ether,  or  the  powers  and  action  thereof,  —  I 
am  studying  the  Thought  of  the  Infinite  God.  The 
Universe  is  his  Scripture ;  Nature  the  prose,  and  Man 
the  poetry  of  God.  The  world  is  a  volume  holier  than 
the  Bible,  old  as  creation.  What  history,  what  psalms, 
what  prophecy  therein !  what  canticles  of  love  to  beast 
and  man !  not  the  "  Wisdom  of   Solomon "  as  in  this 


176  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

Apocrypha,  but  the  Wisdom  of  God,  written  out  in  the 
great  Canon  of  the  Universe. 

Then,  when  I  see  the  suffering  of  animals,  —  the 
father-alligator  eating  up  his  sons  and  daughters,  and 
the  Mother-alligator  seeking  to  keep  them  from  his 
jaws,  —  when  I  see  the  sparrow  falling  at  a  dandy's 
shot,  I  know  that  these  things  have  been  provided  for 
by  the  God  of  the  alligator  and  the  sparrow,  and  that 
the  universe  is  lodged  as  collateral  security  to  insure 
bliss  to  every  sparrow  that  falls. 

From  this  point  of  view  how  beautiful  appears  the 
World  of  Man !  When  I  look  on  the  whole  history  of 
man,  —  man  as  a  savage,  as  a  barbarian,  as  half-civil- 
ized, or  as  civilized,  —  feudal  or  commercial  —  fighting 
with  all  the  forces  which  chemistry  and  mechanical 
science  can  offer,  and  suffering  from  want,  war,  igno- 
rance, from  sin  in  all  its  thousand  forms,  —  from  des- 
potic oppression  in  Russia,  democratic  oppression  in 
America ;  when  I  see  the  tyranny  of  the  feudal  baron 
in  other  times,  with  his  acres  and  his  armies,  of  the 
feudal  capitalist,  now-a-days,  —  the  commercial  baron, 
with  notes  at  cent  per  cent. ;  when  I  see  the  hysena  of 
the  desert  stealing  his  prey  in  an  Abyssinian  town,  and 
the  hysena  of  the  city  kidnapping  a  man  in  Boston,  — 
when  I  see  all  this,  I  say  the  thing  is  not  hopeless.  O 
no !  it  is  hopeful.  God  knew  it  aU  at  the  beginning,  as 
perfect  Cause ;  cared  for  it  all,  as  perfect  Providence, 
with  perfect  motive,  purpose,  material,  means  —  will 
achieve  at  last  ultimate  welfare  for  the  oppressor  and 
the  oppressed. 

I  see  the  individual  suffering,  from  want,  ignorance, 
and   oppression;   the   public  woe  which   blackens  the 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  177 

countenance  of  men,  the  sorrow  which  with  private 
tooth  gnaws  the  heart  of  African  Ellen  or  William,  the 
sin  which  puts  out  the  eyes  of  Caucasian  Cain  or 
George.  Can  I  fear  ?  O  no !  though  the  worm  of  sor- 
row bore  into  my  own  heart,  I  cannot  fear.  The  Infi- 
nite God  with  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  holiness, 
and  love,  knew  it  all,  and  made  the  nature  of  Ellen  and 
William,  of  Cain  and  George,  and  controls  their  cir- 
cumstances, so  that  by  their  action  and  the  action  of  the 
world  of  man  and  the  world  of  matter,  the  perfect  mo- 
tive and  the  perfect  means  shall  achieve  the  perfect  pur- 
pose of  the  infinite  loving-kindness  of  God. 

Then  how  grand  is  human  destination!  Ay,  your 
destination  and  mine !  There  is  no  chance ;  it  is  di- 
rection which  we  did  not  see.  There  is  no  fate,  but  a 
Mother's  Providence  holding  the  universe  in  her  lap, 
warming  each  soul  with  her  own  breath,  and  feeding  it 
from  her  own  bosom  with  everlasting  life. 

In  times  past  there  is  evil  which  I  cannot  understand ; 
in  times  present  evil  which  I  cannot  solve ;  suffering  — 
for  mankind,  for  each  nation,  for  you  and  me  ;  suffer- 
ings, follies,  sins.  I  know  they  were  all  foreseen  by  the 
infinite  wisdom  of  God,  all  provided  for  by  his  infinite 
power  and  justice,  and  his  infinite  love  shall  bring  us 
all  to  bhss,  not  a  soul  left  behind,  not  a  sparrow  lost. 
The  means  I  know  not ;  the  end  I  am  sure  of. 

"  Whether  I  fly  with  angels,  fall  with  dust, 
Thy  hands  made  both,  and  I  am  there ; 
Thy  power  and  love,  my  love  and  trust, 
^lake  one  place  everywhere." 

In  the  world  of  matter  there  is  the  greatest  economy 
of  force.  The  rain-drop  is  wooed  for  a  moment  into 
bridal  loveliness  by  some  enamoured  ray  of  light,  then 


178  SPECULATIVE  THEISM. 

feeds  the  gardener's  violet,  or  moves  the  grindstone  in 
the  farmer's  mill,  —  serving  alike  the  tm-n  of  Beauty 
and  of  Use.  Nothing  is  in  vain ;  all  things  are  mani- 
fold in  use. 

"  A  rose,  beside  liis  beauty,  is  a  cure." 

The  ocean  is  but  the  chemist's  sink  which  holds  the 
rinsings  of  the  world,  and  every  thing  washed  off  from 
earth  was  what  the  land  needed  to  void,  the  sea  to  take. 
All  things  are  twofold ;  matter  is  doubly  winged,  with 
Use  and  Beauty. 

"  Nothing  hath  got  so  far, 
But  man  hath  caught  and  kept  it  as  his  prey ; 

His  eyes  dismount  the  highest  star; 

He  is  in  little  all  the  sphere. 
Herbs  gladly  cure  our  flesh,  because  that  they 

Find  their  acquaintance  there. 

"  For  us  the  winds  do  blow. 
The  earth  doth  rest,  heaven  move,  and  fountains  flow ; 

Nothing  we  see  but  means  our  good, 

As  our  delight,  or  as  our  treasure  ; 
The  whole  is  either  our  cupboard  of  food, 

Or  cabinet  of  pleasure. 

"  The  stars  have  us  to  bed ; 
Night  draws  the  curtain,  which  the  sun  withdraws. 

Music  and  light  attend  our  head : 

All  things  unto  our  flesh  are  kind 
In  their  descent  and  being;  to  our  mind 

In  their  ascent  and  cause." 

And  do  you  then  believe  that  the  great  God,  whose 
motto,  "  waste  not,  want  not,"  is  pictured  and  practised 
on  earth  and  sea  and  sky,  is  prodigal  of  human  suffering, 
human  woe  ?  Every  tear-drop  which  sorrow  has  wrung 
from  some  poor  negro's  eye,  every  sigh,  every  prayer  of 


SPECULATIVE  THEISM.  179 

grief,  each  groan  the  exile  puts  up  in  our  own  land, 
and  the  groan  which  the  American  exile  puts  up  in 
Canada,  —  while  his  tears  shed  for  his  wife  and  child 
smarting  in  the  tropics,  are  turned  to  ice  before  they 
touch  the  wintry  ground,  —  has  its  function  in  the 
great  chemistry  of  our  Father's  world.  These  things 
were  known  by  God,  and  he  will  bring  every  exile,  every 
wanderer  in  his  arms,  the  great  men  not  forgot,  the  little 
not  less  blest,  and  bear  them  rounding  home  from  bale 
to  bliss,  to  give  to  each  the  welfare  which  his  nature 
needs  to  give  and  ours  to  take. 

The  atheist  looks  out  on  a  here  without  a  Hereafter, 
a  body  without  a  Soul,  a  world  without  a  Heaven,  a 
universe  with  no  God ;  and  he  must  needs  fold  his 
arms  in  despair,  and  dwindle  down  into  the  material 
selfishness  of  a  cold  and  sullen  heart.  The  popular 
theologian  looks  out  on  the  world  and  sees  a  body 
blasted  by  a  Soul,  a  here  undermined  by  a  Hereafter  of 
hell,  arched  over  with  a  little  paltry  sounding-board  of 
Heaven,  whence  the  elect  may  look  over  the  edge  and 
rejoice  in  the  writhings  of  the  worms  unpitied  beneath 
their  feet.  He  looks  out  and  sees  a  grim  and  revenge- 
ful and  evil  God.  Such  is  his  sad  whim.  But  the 
man  with  pure  theism  in  his  heart  looks  out  on  the 
world,  and  there  is  the  Infinite  God  everywhere  as  per- 
fect Cause,  everywhere  as  perfect  Providence,  transcend- 
ing all,  yet  immanent  in  each,  with  perfect  power,  wis- 
dom, justice,  holiness,  and  love,  securing  perfect  welfare 
unto  each  and  all. 

On  the  shore  of  Time  where  Atheism  sat  in  despair, 
and  where  Theology  howled  with  delight,  at  its  Dream 
of  Hell  all  crowded  with  torment  at  the  end,  —  there 
sits  Theism.  Before  it  passes  on  the  stream  of  Human 
History,  roUing  its  volumed  waters  gathered  from  all 


180  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

lands,  —  Ethiopian,  Malay,  Tai-tar,  Caucasian,  Amer- 
ican,—  from  each  nation,  tribe,  and  family  of  men; 
and  it  comes  from  the  Infinite  God,  its  perfect  Cause ; 
it  roUs  on  its  waters  by  the  Infinite  Providence,  its  per- 
fect Protector;  he  knew  at  Creation  the  history  of 
empires,  these  lesser  dimples  on  the  stream  ;  of  EUen 
and  William,  Cain  and  George,  the  bubbles  on  the 
water's  face ;  he  provided  for  them  all,  so  that  not  a 
dimple  deepens  and  whirls  away,  not  a  bubble  breaks, 
but  the  perfect  Providence  foresaw  and  fore-cared  for  it 
all.  God  is  on  the  shore  of  the  stream  of  Human  His- 
tory, infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  love ;  God  is  in 
the  air  over  it,  where  floats  the  sparrow  that  fell,  falling 
to  its  bliss,  —  in  the  waters,  in  every  dimple,  in  each 
bubble,  in  each  atom  of  every  drop  ;  and  at  the  end  the 
stream  falls  into  the  sea,  —  that  Amazon  of  human  his- 
tory, under  the  line  of  Providence,  on  the  Equator  of 
the  world,  falls  into  the  great  Ocean  of  Eternity,  and 
not  a  dimple  that  deepens  and  whirls  away,  not  a  bub- 
ble that  breaks,  not  a  single  atom  of  a  drop,  is  lost.  All 
fall  into  the  Ocean  of  Blessedness,  which  is  the  bosom 
of  love,  and  then  the  rush  of  many  waters  sings  out 
this  psalm  from  human  nature  and  from  human  his- 
tory, —  "  If  God  is  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  '* 


SEIUION  VI. 


OF    THEISM   AS   ETHICS. 


16 


(181) 


PSALM  XXV.  21. 

LET  IJJTKGKITY  AND   UPRIGHTNESS   PRESERVE   MK. 
(182) 


VI 


OF  PRACTICAL  THEISM,   REGARDED   AS  THE 
PRINCIPLE   OF   ETHICS. 


Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Speculative  Theism  as  a 
Theory  of  the  Universe.  To-day  I  ask  your  attention 
to  a  Sermon  of  Practical  Theism ;  of  Theism  consid- 
ered as  a  Principle  of  Ethics. 

You  start  with  the  Idea  of  God  as  Infinite  in  power, 
wisdom,  justice,  love,  holiness ;  you  consider  him  in 
his  relation  to  the  universe,  as  perfect  Cause  and  perfect 
Providence  ;  you  see  that  from  his  nature  he  must  have 
made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein,  from  a  perfect 
motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect  material,  as 
perfect  means  thereto;  and  therefore  that  Human 
Nature  must  be  adequate  to  the  end  which  God  de- 
signed ;  that  it  must  be  provided  with  means  adequate 
to  the  development  of  men;  that  all  the  faculties  in 
their  normal  activity  must  be  the  natural  means  for 
achieving  the  purposes  of  God.  You  see  that  as  he 
gave  Nature,  the  material  world,  its  present  amount  of 
necessitated  forces,  knowing  exactly  how  to  proportion 
the  means  to  the  end,  the  forces  to  the  result  which 
they  were  to  produce ;  —  in  like  manner  he  gave  to 

(183) 


184  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

man  his  present  amount  of  contingent  forces,  knowing 
perfectly  well  what  use  men  would  make  thereof,  what 
abuses  would  ensue,  what  results  would  come  to  pass, 
and  ordered  and  balanced  these  things,  compensating 
one  constant  by  another,  caprice  by  necessity,  so  that 
our  human  forces  should  become  the  means  of  achiev- 
ing his  divine  purpose,  and  the  freewill  of  men  should 
ultimately  work  in  the  same  line  with  the  infinite  per- 
fection of  God,  and  so  the  result  which  God  designed 
should  be  achieved  by  human  freedom :  therefore,  that 
this  perfect  Cause  and  perfect  Providence  has  provided 
human  freedom  as  part  of  the  perfect  means  whereby 
human  destination  is  to  be  wrought  out ;  —  which  des- 
tination is  not  fate,  but  providence. 

Well,  this  Idea  of  God,  the  consequent  idea  of  the 
Universe  and  of  the  Relation  between  the  two,  cannot 
remain  merely  a  theory  ;  it  will  affect  human  life  in  all 
its  most  important  details. 

It  will  appear  in  the  Form  of  Religion.  Man  must 
always  work  with  such  intellectual  apparatus  —  facul- 
ties and  ideas  —  as  he  has.  With  the  Idea  of  the  In- 
finite God,  he  must  progressively  construct  a  form  of 
religion  corresponding  to  that  idea.  That  form  of 
religion  will  comprise  the  subjective  worship,  and  the 
objective  service  of  God;  and  so  it  will  become  the 
Theoretic  Ideal  of  Human  Life. 

Then  that  form  of  religion  will  appear  in  the  Actual 
Life  of  men,  and  in  all  the  modes  and  modifications 
thereof :  —  for  no  human  force  is  so  subtle  as  the  relig- 
ious ;  it  extends,  and  multiplies,  and  goes  into  every 
department  of  human  affairs  ; 

"  Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent." 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  185 

Let  US  now  look  at  the  theoretic  Form  of  relig- 
ion which  belongs  to  this  idea,  and  at  the  Realization 
thereof  in  human  life.  Treating  of  a  theme  so  vast  I 
must  pass  over  much  which  I  would  gladly  say,  and 
only  briefly  touch  where  I  would  fain  pause  long  and 
dwell. 

I.  First,  then,  of  the  Form  of  Religion.  Of  Relig- 
ion there  are  always  two  parts ;  namely,  the  subjective 
portion,  which  is  Piety,  consisting  of  emotions  that  are 
purely  internal ;  and  next  the  objective  portion,  which 
is  Morality,  internal  in  part,  and  external  also ;  rooted 
in  our  consciousness  of  God,  and  branched  abroad  into 
practical  action  in  our  houses  and  farms  and  shops,  our 
warehouses,  our  libraries,  and  our  banks.  Let  me 
speak  of  each  of  these,  going  over  things  very  much  at 
large,  in  the  sketchiest  way. 

First  of  the  subjective  portion.  When  fully  grown 
this  subjective  part  must  be  pure  Piety ;  I  mean  to  say 
piety  not  mixed  with  any  other  emotion. 

There  will  be  no  Fear  or  Distrust  of  God,  because  it 
is  known  that  there  is  nothing  in  him  to  fear :  I  fear 
what  hurts ;  never  what  helps. 

Distrust  of  God  rests  on  the  idea  that  he  is  something 
not  perfect ;  imperfect  in  power,  wisdom,  justice,  love, 
or  holiness  :  and  with  that  idea  of  him  God  may  seem 
good  so  far  as  he  goes ;  but  not  going  infinitely,  he  does 
not  go  far  enough  to  warrant  infinite  trust ;  and  so  there 
is  a  partial  distrust. 

Fear  of  God  is  worse  yet.  That  rests  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  there  is  not  only  in  God  something  not  per- 
fect, but  that  there  is  in  him  something  which  is  not 
good,  not  kind. 

But  you  cannot  fear  infinite  Love ;  you  cannot  fear 

16* 


186  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

infinite  Justice,  nor  infinite  Holiness ;  nor  yet  infinite 
Wisdom  and  infinite  Power,  when  they  are  directed  by 
infinite  justice  and  animate  with  infinite  love.  With 
the  idea  of  God  as  infinitely  perfect  I  may  indeed  have 
doubts  of  to-morrow,  doubts  of  my  own  or  another's 
temporary  welfare,  for  I  know  not  what  result  the  con- 
tingent forces  of  human  freedom  will  produce  to-morrow : 
but  I  can  have  no  doubt  of  eternity,  no  doubts  of  my 
own  or  another's  ultimate  welfare,  because  I  do  know 
that  the  absolute  forces  of  God  will  so  control  the  con- 
ditional and  contingent  forces  of  men  which  his  plan 
arranged  and  provided  for,  that  ultimately  the  perfect 
purpose  of  God  shall  be  achieved  for  all  and  each.  A 
silversmith  makes  a  watch,  knowing  the  powers  and 
consequent  necessitated  action  of  the  materials  he  puts 
therein,  so  that  it  will  keep  time  corresponding  with  the 
dial  of  the  heavens.  But  he  does  not  know  how  the 
purchasers  of  the  watch  will  use  it,  whether  or  no  they 
will  fulfil  the  conditions  essential  to  its  action ;  and  so 
he  cannot  absolutely  foretell  and  provide  for  all  its  ac- 
tion and  history;  it  will  be  subject  to  conditions  which 
he  cannot  control  or  even  foresee.  Now  the  Infinite 
God,  at  the  creation  of  man,  knew  all  the  powers  He 
put  therein ;  he  knew  all  the  conditions  into  which  the 
necessitated  forces  of  material  nature,  and  the  contin- 
gent forces  of  human  nature,  shall  bring  mankind  and 
each  special  person.  Accordingly  God  absolutely 
knows  not  only  the  primitive  powers  of  each  man,  but 
the  action,  movements,  and  complete  history  thereof 
under  any  and  all  the  conditions  of  existence.  And  the 
Infinite  God  working  with  motives  proportionate  to  his 
nature,  and  means  adequate  to  his  purpose,  must  needs 
make  man  capable  of  achieving  that  ultimate  welfare 
which  the  finite  needs  to  have  and  the  Infinite  needs  to 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  187 

give.  If  God  be  infinite,  a  perfect  Cause  and  perfect 
Providence,  this  conclusion  follows  as  plain  as  the 
farmer's  road  to  mill.  So  I  say  I  can  have  no  distrust 
and  no  fear  of  God ;  no  fear  of  ultimate  failure  or  future 
torment.  Suffering  I  may  have  in  another  life :  I  will 
meet  it  gladly,  and  thank  God ;  it  is  medical,  and  not 
malicious.  In  the  popular  theology  God  is  represented 
as  a  Jesuitical  Inquisitor;  but  the  Infinite  God  is  a 
protector,  a  Father  and  Mother. 

Then  there  will  be  Absolute  Love  of  God,  —  to  the 
mind  God  will  be  the  Beauty  of  Truth ;  to  the  con- 
science the  Beauty  of  Justice,  to  the  affections  the 
Beauty  of  Love,  to  the  soul  the  Beauty  of  Holiness,  and 
to  the  whole  consciousness  of  man  he  will  appear  as 
the  total  Infinite  Beauty ;  the  perfect  and  absolute  ob- 
ject of  every  hungering  faculty  of  man  ;  the  Cause  that 
creates  from  perfect  love  as  motive,  for  perfect  love  as 
purpose,  and  by  perfect  love  as  means;  the  perfect 
Providence  that  provides  from  the  same  motive  for  the 
same  purpose,  and  by  the  same  means.  So  he  wiU  ap- 
pear as  the  Father  and  the  Mother  of  all ;  operating  by 
necessitated  forces  in  the  dew-drop,  and  in  the  all  of 
material  things  ;  operating,  also,  by  contingent  forces  in 
the  soul  of  a  little  girl,  or  in  the  great  aggregate  of 
spirit  which  we  call  the  world  of  man ;  operating  so 
perfectly  as  Cause  and  so  perfectly  as  Providence  that 
he  is  Father  and  Mother  to  every  soul.  I  say  this  Idea 
of  God  is  infinitely  lovely,  and  awakens  in  the  heart  of 
a  man,  who  draws  near  thereto,  the  deepest  and  tender- 
est  love.     There  is  no  doubt,  no  fear. 

With  this  Idea  of  God,  and  this  Love  of  Him,  there 
comes  a  Perfect  Trust  in  God,  as  Cause  and  Provi- 
dence :  —  not  only  a  trust  in  the  daylight  of  science, 
where  we  see,  but  in  the  twihght,  even  in  the  darkness 


188  PEACTICAL   THEISM. 

of  ignorance,  where  we  see  not :  —  an  absolute  trust  in 
his  motive,  his  purpose,  and  his  means ;  so  that  we 
shall  not  desire  any  other  motive  but  the  motive  of  God, 
nor  any  other  purpose  but  the  purpose  of  God,  nor  any 
other  means  but  the  means  he  has  provided  thereto. 

With  that  trust  there  must  come  a  perpetual  Hope, 
for  yourself,  for  all  mankind ;  for  as  dark  as  the  world 
may  be,  dark  as  my  own  condition  may  be,  my  outward 
lot,  my  inward  state,  still  I  know  assuredly  that  God 
foresaw  it  all,  provided  for  it  all,  and  that  he  cannot 
fail  in  motive,  in  purpose,  or  means  thereto ;  and  thus 
light  will  spring  out  of  darkness  and  bliss  come  forth 
out  of  bale. 

With  this  there  will  come  Tranquillity  and  Rest  for 
the  soul ;  that  Peace  spoken  of  in  the  fourth  canonical 
Gospel,  which  the  world  cannot  give  nor  take  away. 

Then  there  will  come  a  real  Joy  in  God.  I  mean  the 
happiness  which  the  Mystics  call  the  "  sense  of  sweet- 
ness "  that  comes  when  the  conditions  of  the  soul  are 
completely  met;  when  the  true  Idea  of  God  and  the 
appropriate  Feeling  towards  him  furnish  the  personal, 
human,  inward  condition  of  religious  delight,  and  there 
is  nothing  between  us  and  the  Infinite  Father.  That  is 
the  highest  joy  and  the  highest  delight  of  human  con- 
sciousness. The  natural  desires  of  the  body  may  fail 
of  satisfaction,  —  their  hunger  shortening  my  days  on 
earth, — and  I  may  be  poor  and  cold  and  naked ;  I  may 
be  a  prisoner  in  a  dungeon  of  Austria,  or  a  slave  on  a 
plantation  of  Carolina ;  I  may  be  sick  and  feeble,  and 
the  conditions  of  domestic  and  of  social  welfare  may 
not  be  complied  with ;  —  but  if  the  souPs  conditions 
are  fairly  met  within  on  the  side  that  is  turned  towards 
the  Infinite,  then  through  the  clouds  the  Beauty  of  God 
shines  on  me  and  I  am  at  peace. 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  189 

So  there  will  come  a  Beauty  of  Soul,  1  mean  a  har- 
monious spiritual  whole  of  well-proportioned  spiritual 
parts,  and  there  will  be  a  continual  and  constant  growth 
in  ail  the  noble  qualities  of  man.  God  will  not  be 
thought  afar  off,  separated  from  Nature,  separated  from 
man,  but  dwelling  therein,  immanent  in  each,  though 
yet  transcending  all.  Nature  will  be  seen  as  a  revelation 
of  God ;  and  the  march  of  man  will  reveal  also  the  same 
Providence,  as  the  world  of  matter  —  human  conscious- 
ness disclosing  higher  characteristics  of  the  Infinite 
God.  Communion  with  him  will  be  direct,  my  spirit 
meeting  his,  with  nothing  betwixt  me  and  the  Godhead 
of  God.  I  shall  not  pray  by  attorney,  but  face  to  face. 
Inspiration  will  be  a  fact  now,  not  merely  a  history  of 
times  gone  by.  Worship,  the  subjective  service  of  God, 
will  be  not  by  conventional  forms  of  belief,  of  speech, 
or  of  posture ;  not  by  a  sacramental  addition  of  an 
excrescence  where  nature  suffered  no  lack,  nor  by  muti- 
lation of  the  body,  or  mutilation  of  the  spirit,  the  sac- 
ramental cutting  off  where  God  made  nothing  redun- 
dant :  but  by  conscious  noble  emotions  shall  I  subjec- 
tively worsKip  God ;  by  gratitude  for  my  right  to  the 
Father,  and  in  his  universe  the  thanksgiving  of  an  up- 
right heart;  by  aspiration  after  a  higher  ideal  of  my 
own  daily  life  ;  by  the  sense  of  Duty  to  be  done,  which 
comes  with  the  sense  of  Right  to  be  enjoyed;  by  peni- 
tence where  I  fall  short ;  by  resolutions,  that  in  my 
"  proper  motion,"  I  may  ascend,  and  not  by  adverse  fall 
come  down ;  by  the  calm  joy  of  the  soul,  its  delight  in 
Nature,  in  Man,  and  in  God ;  by  the  hope,  the  faith,  and 
the  love,  which  the  large  soul  sends  out  of  itself  in  its 
religious  life ;  and  by  the  growing  beauty  of  character, 
which  constantly  increases  in  love  of  wisdom,  in  love 
of  justice,  in  love  of  benevolence  —  in  love  of  Man, 


190  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

in  love  of   God.     That  will  be  the  real  worship,  the 
internal  service  of  the  Father. 

So  much  for  the  subjective  part  of  this  form  of 
religion. 

Of  the  Objective  Part  also  a  word.  God,  who  is 
thus  subjectively  served  in  the  natural  forms  of  Piety, 
must  be  objectively  served  or  worshipped  in  the  natural 
forms  of  Morality ;  that  is,  by  keeping  all  the  laws  of 
God.  In  Nature,  the  material  world,  the  law  of  God 
is  the  actual  constant  mode  of  operation  of  the  forces 
thereof,  —  the  way  it  does  not  act.  There  all  is  neces- 
sitated, and  we  know  of  the  law  by  seeing  the  fact  that 
it  is  always  kept;  for  the  ideal  law  of  matter  is  the 
actual  fact  of  matter,  learned  by  observation,  not  by 
consciousness.  So  the  material  universe  and  God,  in 
every  point  of  space  and  time  are  continually  at  one. 
If  law  is  a  constant  of  God,  obedience  thereto  is  a  con- 
stant of  matter.  But  in  man,  the  law  of  God  for  man 
is  the  ideal  constant  mode  of  operation  of  the  human 
force,  —  the  way  it  should  act.  This  is  not  always  a 
fact  in  any  man ;  and  we  learn  it  not  merely  by  ob- 
servation of  our  history,  but  by  consciousness  of  our 
nature.  Morality  is  the  making  of  the  ideal  of  human 
nature  into  the  actual  of  human  history.  Herein  the 
ideal  of  God's  purpose  becomes  the  actual  of  man's 
achievement ;  and  so  far  man  and  God  are  at  one,  as 
everywhere  God  and  matter  are  at  one.  Then  for  every 
point  of  Right  we  seek  to  enjoy,  there  is  a  point  of 
Duty  which  we  will  to  do. 

Thus  in  general,  morality  will  be  the  objective  ser- 
vice of  God,  as  piety  is  the  subjective  worship  of  God. 
These  two  make  up  the  whole  of  Religion.  They  are 
the  only  "divine  service:"   Piety  is  the  great  inward 


PRACTICAL    THEISM.  191 

sacrament  and  act  of  worship ;  Morality  the  great  out- 
ward sacrament  and  act  of  service  —  other  things  are 
but  helps.  Piety  wiU  be  free  piety,  such  as  the  spirit 
of  man  demands  :  Morality  will  be  free  morality,  such 
as  the  spirit  of  man  demands ;  both  perfectly  conform- 
able to  the  nature  which  God  put  into  man,  to  the  body 
and  the  spirit,  —  the  mind  and  conscience,  heart  and 
soul. 

This  morality  wiU  consist  partly  in  keeping  the  Law 
of  the  Body;  in  giving  it  its  due  use,  development, 
enjoyment,  and  discipline,  in  the  world  of  matter. 

The  popular  theology,  in  its  ascetic  rules,  goes  to  an 
extreme,  and  does  great  injustice.  It  counts  the  body 
mean,  calls  it  vile,  says  that  therein  dwells  no  good 
thing.  It  mortifies  the  flesh,  crucifies  the  affections 
thereof.  But  the  body  is  not  vile.  Did  not  the  infinite 
Father  make  it,  —  not  a  Hmb  too  much,  not  a  passion 
too  many  ?  God  make  any  thing  vile !  and  least  of  aU 
this,  which  is  the  consummation  of  his  outward  work- 
manship,—  the  frame  of  man!  Far  fi*om  us  be  the 
thought. 

The  Atheistic  philosophy  goes  to  the  other  extreme, 
and  clamors  for  the  "  rehabilitation  of  the  flesh,"  and 
would  have  a  paradise  of  the  senses,  as  the  sole  and 
earthly  heaven  of  man.  Theology  turns  the  flesh  out 
of  doors,  and  the  soul  has  cold  housekeeping,  living 
alone  ;  Atheism  turns  the  soul  out  of  doors,  and  the 
flesh  has  no  better  time  of  it ;  no,  has  a  worse  time, 
with  its  scarlet  women  "tinging  the  pavement  with 
proud  wine  too  good  for  the  tables  of  pontiffs."  Abso- 
lute Religion  demands  the  use  of  every  limb  of  the  body, 
fjvery  faculty  of  the  soul,  aU  after  their  own  kind,  each 
performing  its  prope/  function  in  the  housekeeping  of 
man.     Then  there  will  be  freedom  of  the  body,  fireedom 


192  PEACTICAL  THEISM. 

for  every  limb  to  perform  its  function,  and  to  perform 
no  more.     That  is  the  morality  of  the  body. 

This  morality  will  consist  also  in  keeping  the  Law 
of  the  Spirit ;  that  is,  in  giving  the  spirit  its  natural 
empire  over  the  material  part  of  us,  and  in  giving  each 
spiritual  faculty  its  natural  place  in  the  housekeeping  of 
the  spirit ;  so  that  each,  the  intellectual,  the  moral,  the 
affectional,  and  the  purely  religious  faculty,  shall  have 
its  due  development,  use,  enjoyment,  and  discipline  in 
life.  Then  there  will  be  spiritual  freedom  ;  that  is,  the 
Liberty  of  every  spiritual  faculty  to  perform  its  own 
work,  and  no  more.  This  is  the  morality  of  the 
spirit. 

The  popular  Theology  restrains  each  spiritual  faculty. 
It  hedges  you  in  with  the  limitation  of  some  great  or 
little  man;  it  calls  a  man's  fence  the  limit  to  God's 
revelation:  it  does  not  give  the  mind  room,  nor  con- 
science room,  nor  the  affections  room,  nor  yet  the  soul 
sufficient  space  to  serve  God,  each  by  its  natural  func- 
tion. 

One  of  the  good  things  of  Atheism  has  been  this :  it 
offers  freedom  to  the  human  spirit.  That  is  its  only 
good,  and  its  only  charm.  In  a  Church  of  the  Popular 
Theology  the  great  mind  cannot  draw  a  long  breath, 
lest  it  should  wake  up  the  "  wrath  of  God,"  —  which, 
we  are  told,  never  sleeps  very  sound,  nor  long  at  a  time. 
In  the  free  air  of  Atheism  the  largest  mind  is  told  to 
breathe  as  deep  as  he  can,  and  make  as  much  noise  as 
he  wiU;  there  is  no  God  to  molest  and  make  him 
afraid.  That  is  the  only  charm  which  Atheism  ever 
had  to  any  man.  It  raises  men  from  fear,  and  it  bids 
them  be  true  to  that  part  of  theif  nature  which  they 
know. 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  193 

Well,  such  will  be  the  form  of  Religion  coming  from 
Theism  ;  such  its  Piety  and  Morality.  You  see  it  will 
be  a  form  of  religion  which  fits  well  upon  the  finite 
side,  —  on  man ;  for  it  is  derived  from  his  nature,  and 
represents  all  parts  thereof,  doing  justice  to  the  body,  to 
its  every  limb,  to  all  its  senses,  functions,  passions; 
doing  justice  to  the  spirit,  every  faculty  thereof,  intellec- 
tual, moral,  affectional,  and  religious.  It  fits  just  as 
well  on  the  infinite  side  —  on  God ;  for  it  is  drawn 
from  human  natiu-e  on  the  supposition  that  God  made 
human  nature  from  perfect  motives,  of  perfect  material, 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto. 
This  form  of  religion,  then,  is  the  application  of  God's 
means  to  the  purpose  of  God. 

As  "Christian"  Theology  professes  to  be  derived 
from  a  verbal  revelation  of  God,  —  represented  by  the 
Church,  as  the  Catholics  say,  by  the  Scriptures  as  the 
Protestants  teach,  —  so  the  Absolute  Religion  is  derived 
from  the  real  revelation  of  God,  which  is  contained  in 
the  universe ;  this  outward  universe  of  matter,  this 
inward  universe  of  man ;  and  I  take  it  we  do  not  re- 
quire the  learned  and  conscientious  labors  of  a  Lardner, 
a  Paley,  or  a  Norton,  to  convince  us  that  the  universe  is 
genuine  and  authentic,  and  is  the  work  of  God  without 
interpolation ;  we  all  know  that.  I  call  this  the  Abso- 
lute Religion,  because  it  is  drawn  from  the  absolute 
and  ultimate  source ;  because  it  gives  us  the  absolute 
Idea  of  God,  —  God  as  Infinite  ;  and  because  it  guar- 
antees to  man  his  natural  rights,  and  demands  the  per- 
formance of  the  absolute  duties  of  human  nature. 

So  much  for  this  Form  of  Religion  in  itself. 


II.   Now  see  how  this   Form  of   Religion  will   ap- 
17 


1^  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

pear  in  the   Actual  Life  of  Man,  and  the   subjective 
religious  thought  become  an  objective  religious  thing. 

See  it  first  in  the  form  of  Individual  Human  Life ; 
in  a  Person. 

He  will  be  the  most  religious  man  who  most  con- 
forms to  his  nature  ;  who  has  most  of  this  natural  piety 
and  of  this  natural  moralit}'.  There  will  be  various 
degrees  thereof,  only  one  kind.  He  will  worship  God 
the  best,  or  subjectively  serve  him,  who  has  the  most 
love  of  truth,  the  most  love  of  justice,  of  benevolence, 
of  holiness ;  the  greatest  love  of  Man,  and  the  greatest 
love  of  God ;  who  most  desires  and  strongest  wiUs  to 
possess  these  great  qualities ;  in  short,  he  who  has  the 
most  natural  piety. 

He  will  sen-e  God  the  best,  objectively  worship  him, 
who  has  the  most  of  truth,  of  righteousness,  of  friend- 
ship, of  philanthropy,  of  holiness  —  fidelity  to  himself ; 
he  who  best  uses  the  great  or  the  little  talent  and  op- 
portunity which  God  has  given;  in  a  word,  he  who 
has  the  most  Morality.  He  will  be  the  most  completely 
religious  man  who  most  keeps  the  law  of  God,  for  his 
body  and  for  his  soul ;  and  of  course  who  coordinates 
the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  and  duly  subordinates  the  low 
qualities  of  the  spirit  to  the  higher ;  —  for  a  very  little 
activity  of  the  higher  faculties  of  man  is  worth  a  great 
deal  of  activity  of  the  lower ;  even  as  an  ounce  of  gold 
can  any  day  purchase  some  tons  of  sand. 

This  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  true  scale  of  man's  spirit- 
ual faculties :  — Intellect  is  the  lowest  of  them,  dealing 
with  truth,  use,  and  beauty  in  their  abstract  and  con- 
crete forms ;  next  comes  Conscience,  aiming  at  justice 
and  eternal  right;  next  the  Affections,  loving  persons, 
and  sacrificing  my  personal  joy  to  the  delight  of  another 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  195 

person ;  and  highest  of  all  comes  the  religious  faculty, 
which  I  call  the  Soul,  that  seeks  the  infinite  Being, 
Father  and  Mother  of  the  Universe,  and  loves  him  with 
perfect  love  and  serves  him  with  perfect  trust.  So  in 
the  individual  the  soul,  taking  cognizance  of  the  infi- 
nite being,  and  his  Relation  to  us,  is  thereby  our  natu- 
ral master.  Is  not  this  true  which  I  state  ?  It  is  not 
merely  my  psychological  knowledge  of  man  which  tells 
me  this ;  it  is  the  world's  history  which  tells  it ;  it  is  the 
consciousness  of  your  heart,  and  my  heart,  which  cry 
out  for  the  living  God,  and  assure  us  that  we  must  sub- 
ordinate every  thing  to  him. 

"What  a  difference  there  will  be  between  the  saint 
of  Absolute  Religion  and  the  saint  of  the  popular  The- 
ology. The  real  saint  is  a  man  who  aims  to  have  a 
w^hole  body,  and  a  whole  mind,  and  a  whole  conscience, 
and  a  whole  heart,  and  a  whole  soul ;  and  to  live  a 
whole,  brave,  manly  life,  at  work  in  the  daily  calling  of 
grocer,  or  mason,  or  legislator,  or  cabinet-maker,  or  his- 
torian, or  seamstress,  or  preacher,  or  farmer,  or  king, 
or  whatsoever  it  may  be :  that  will  be  the  aim  of  the 
saint  of  natural  religion.  But  the  popular  saint  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly different  thing ;  a  meagre,  church-rid  mope, 
"  a-dust  and  thin,"  a  ghost  of  humanity  that  haunts  the 
aisles  of  the  church ;  for  the  popular  saint  is  dyspeptic 
in  body,  dyspeptic  in  mind  and  conscience,  in  heart  and 
Boul :  you  see  by  his  face  that  his  spiritual  digestion  is 
poor,  his  stomach  is  weak,  and  his  religion  does  not  agree 
with  him.  He  must  send  off  to  the  Jordan  to  get  water 
to  christen  his  baby,  before  that  baby  is  thought  safe  from 
the  damnation  of  hell ;  baptism  with  the  spirit  of  God 
and  the  spirit  of  Man  is  not  enough.  But  the  real  saint 
of  absolute  religion  must  be  a  free  spiritual  individual. 
His  Piety  must  represent  him,  and  his  Morality  must 


196  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

represent  him,  and  he  will  carry  them  both  into  all  his 
work.  Knowing  that  God  gave  him  faculties  as  God 
meant  him  to  have  them,  each  containing  its  law  in  itself; 
knowing  that  God  provided  them  as  a  perfect  means 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  that  that  purpose  is  one  which 
cannot  faH,  —  he  will  use  these  faculties  in  the  true  ser- 
vice of  God ;  and  he  will  work  as  no  other  man,  —  with 
a  strength,  and  a  vigor,  and  a  perseverance ;  ay,  and  a 
beauty  of  character  too,  which  nothing  but  Absolute 
Religion  can  ever  give.  So  there  will  be  the  greatest 
strength  to  do,  to  be,  and  to  suffer,  sure  to  conquer  at 
the  last.  He  will  sail  the  more  carefully,  for  he  knows 
that  careful  sailing  is  the  service  which  God  requires 
of  him ;  he  will  sail  the  more  confident,  because  he 
knows  that  his  voyage  is  laid  out,  and  his  craft  is  in- 
sured by  the  Power  who  holds  the  waters  in  the  hollow 
of  his  hand;  yes,  that  it  is  insured  against  ultimate 
shipwreck  at  the  great  office  of  the  infinite  God.  Will 
he  not  work  therefore  with  greater  earnestness  and  zeal 
because  he  knows  that  God  gave  him  these  talents  as 
perfect  means  for  a  perfect  end ;  with  more  confidence 
because  he  knows  the  end  is  made  sure  of ;  and  with 
more  caution,  because  he  knows  that  the  true  use  of  the 
means  is  the  only  service  God  asks  of  him  ? 

See  this  same  thing  in  its  Domestic  Form,  —  that  of 
Human  Life  in  the  Family.  The  family  must  repre- 
sent the  free  spiritual  individuality  of  man  and  woman, 
regarded  as  equal,  and  equally  joining  by  connubial  love 
—  passion  and  affection  —  for  mutual  self-denial  and 
mutual  delight ;  —  for  there  is  no  marriage  without  mu- 
tual self-denial  as  means,  for  mutual  delight  as  end. 
Marriage  between  a  perfect  man  and  a  perfect  woman, 
would  be  mutual  surrender  and  mutual  sacrifice. 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  197 

In  all  forms  of  religion  that  I  know,  from  the  book  of 
Moses  to  the  book  of  Mormon,  from  Confucius  to 
Calvin,  woman  is  degraded  before  man  ;  for  in  all  forms 
of  religion  hitherto  Force  has  been  preferred  above  all 
things,  and  the  great  quality  which  has  been  ascribed 
to  God  is  an  Omnipotence  of  Force.  That  is  the  thing 
which  Christendom  has  worshipped  these  many  hun- 
dred years,  not  love ;  a  mighty  head,  a  mighty  arm,  not 
a  mighty  heart.  As  force  is  preferred  before  all  things 
in  God,  so  in  man;  hence  in  religion;  thence  in  all 
human  affairs.  And  as  woman  has  less  force  than  man, 
less  force  of  muscle,  less  force  of  mind,  has  more  fineness 
of  body,  superior  fineness  of  intellect,  has  eminence  of 
conscience,  eminence  of  affection,  eminence  of  the  relig- 
ious power,  eminence  of  soul ;  as  she  is  inferior  to  man  in 
his  lower  elements,  and  superior  in  his  higher,  —  so  she 
has  been  prostrated  before  him.  Her  Right  of  nature 
has  been  trodden  underfoot  by  his  Might  of  nature. 
This  degradation  of  woman  is  obvious  in  all  forms  of 
religion ;  it  is  terribly  apparent  in  the  Christian  Church. 
The  first  three  Gospels,  —  the  last  is  an  exception  — the 
writings  of  Paul"  and  Peter,  the  book  of  Revelation, 
have  small  respect  for  woman,  little  regard  for  marriage. 
The  Bible  makes  woman  the  inferior  of  man  ;  his  in- 
strument of  comfort,  his  medium  of  posterity ;  created 
as  an  after-thought,  for  an  "  helpmeet "  to  man,  because 
"  it  was  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone."  Marriage  in 
the  New  Testament  —  in  the  first  three  Gospels  at  least 
—  is  only  for  time :  "  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage."  It  is  a  low 
condition  here ;  celibacy  is  the  better  of  the  two  ;  "  it  is 
not  good  to  marry ; "  —  only  "  all  men  cannot  receive 
this  saying."  The  Christ  was  represented  as  born  with 
no  human  father,  —  his  very  birth  a  fHng  at  wedlock. 

17* 


198  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

The  Christian  Church  has  long  taught  that  marriage 
was  a  Uttle  unholy ;  and  woman  was  bid  to  be  ashamed 
of  that  part  of  her  nature  which  made  her  a  daughter 
first,  and  afterwards  a  wife  and  mother.  What  do 
Jerome,  Augustine,  and  Aquinas,  and  the  Popes  say  of 
connubial  love  ?  They  have  Paul  as  warrant  for  their 
unnatural  creed.  All  this  depreciation  of  woman  comes 
from  the  idea  of  a  God  with  whom  might  is  more  than 
right ;  the  idea  of  a  God  that  is  mighty  in  his  head,  in 
his  outstretched  arm,  but  is  feeble  in  his  conscience^  and 
feeble  in  his  heart ;  a  most  unmotherly  God. 

But  the  Absolute  Religion  will  give  woman  her  true 
place  in  the  family,  as  the  equivalent  of  man ;  and 
when  the  family  is  of  two  free  spiritual  individualities, 
grouped  together  by  mutual  love,  for  mutual  self-denial 
and  mutual  delight,  then  we  shall  have  a  family  relig- 
ion such  as  the  world  never  saw  before.  And  that 
will  not  be  deemed  the  most  religious  family,  which  has 
the  most  of  psalm-singing  and  of  prayers,  —  excellent 
things,  I  deny  not,  —  but  that  wherein  every  law  of  the 
body  and  every  law  of  the  spirit  are  most  completely 
kept ;  where  man  is  joined  to  woman,  and  woman  joined 
to  man  in  passional  and  affectional  love,  with  mutual 
sacrifice  and  mutual  surrender ;  the  wedlock  of  equals, 
not  the  huddling  together  of  a  superior  and  an  inferior. 

See  this  in  its  Social  Form,  —  that  of  Human  Life 
in  Communities.  All  men  will  be  regarded  as  equal  in 
nature,  equal  in  rights,  equally  entitled  to  take  a  just 
and  natural  delight  in  the  world  of  matter,  on  the  same 
just  and  natural  conditions  which  God  has  laid  down. 
The  Absolute  Religion  of  the  individual  must  be  "  pro- 
fessed "  in  the  institutions  of  society,  and  be  made  life 
in  the  world  of  men.     Then  Morality  will  take  the  form 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  199 

of  Industry  in  all  its  million  modes  ;  of  Natural  Enjoy- 
ment of  the  products  of  industry ;  of  Justice,  regulating 
the  intercourse  of  men  by  the  golden  rule,  which  is  alike 
the  standard  measure  in  the  mind  of  Man  and  in  the 
mind  of  God ;  the  form  of  Friendship  with  a  few,  from 
whom  we  ask  delight  in  return  for  the  joy  we  give  ;  the 
form  of  Philanthropy  to  all,  asking  no  return.  Industry 
will  be  deemed  a  divine  service ;  and  a  man's  shop, 
Ubrary,  bank,  office,  warehouse,  farm,  his  station  in 
church  or  state,  —  all  will  be  deemed  the  special  temple 
wherein  he  is  to  worship  the  Father  by  natural  Mo- 
rality, —  service  with  every  limb  of  his  body,  every 
faculty  of  his  spirit,  every  power  over  matter  or  man 
which  he  has  gained.  Friendship,  with  its  mutual 
triumph  and  reciprocal  surrender.  Philanthropy,  which 
comes  as  charity  to  palliate  the  effects  of  ill,  or  as  justice 
to  remove  the  cause  of  ill,  —  these  will  be  deemed  the 
noble  factors  in  the  religion  of  society,  to  work  out  "  a 
far  more  exceeding,  even  an  eternal  weight  of  glory." 
Then  the  tools  of  a  man's  work,  the  farmer's  plough, 
the  mason's  trowel,  the  griddle  of  the  cook,  the  needle 
of  the  seamstress,  and  the  scholar's  pen,  will  be  reckoned 
the  consecrated  vessels  of  our  divine  service,  and  of 
man's  daily  communion  with  man. 

There  will  be  a  Church,  doubtless,  for  gathering  the 
multitudes  from  the  cold  air,  to  warm  their  faces  where 
one  great  man  lights  the  fire  with  sentiments  and  ideas 
which  he  has  caught  from  God.  There  will  be  a  Sab- 
bath for  rest,  for  thought,  for  ideas,  for  sentiments; 
hours  of  self-communion,  of  penitence,  of  weeping; 
aspirations,  hours  of  highest  communion  and  life  with 
God  ;  but  the  whole  world  wiU  be  a  temple,  every  spot 
holy  ground,  every  bush  burning  with  the  Infinite,  aU 
time  the  Lord's  day,  and  every  moral  act  worship  and 


200  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

a  sacrament.  Then  men  will  see  that  voluntary  idle- 
ness is  a  sin ;  that  profligacy  is  a  sin  ;  that  deceit  is  a 
sin ;  that  fraud  in  work  and  in  trade  is  a  sin ;  that  no 
orthodoxy  of  belief,  no  multitude  of  prayers,  no  bodily 
presence  in  a  meeting-house,  no  acceptance  of  an  arti- 
ficial sacrament,  can  ever  atone  for  neglect  of  the  great 
natural  sacrament  which  God  demands  of  every  man. 

"Will  not  that  be  a  change  in  society  ?  Now,  the 
man  of  the  popular  theology  sneaks  into  Church  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  and  hopes  thereby  to  atone  for  an 
abnegation  of  God  on  the  other  six ;  communes  with 
God  through  bread  and  wine,  and  refuses  to  commune 
with  him  in  buying  and  selling ;  is  a  liar,  a  usurer,  a 
kidnapper  before  men,  while  he  professes  to  be  a  saint 
before  God.  What  is  taught  to  him  as  "  revealed  relig- 
ion," does  not  rebuke  his  pride,  nor  correct  his  con- 
duct. 

Then,  with  the  teaching  of  the  true  Absolute  Relig- 
ion, it  will  be  seen  that  the  great  man  is  only  the  great 
Servant  of  Mankind.  He  that  is  powerful  by  money, 
office,  culture,  genius,  owes  mankind  an  eminence  of 
industry,  justice,  and  love,  as  pay  to  God  for  the  oppor- 
tunities, the  station,  the  strength,  which  he  has  received. 
God  gave  him  greatness  by  nature ;  society  gave  him 
greatness  of  culture,  of  wealth,  of  station ;  —  Why  ? 
That  he  might  do  the  more  service,  not  take  the  more 
ease.  The  man  of  genius  is  born  to  be  eyes  for  the 
public.  If  he  looks  out  only  for  himself  he  has  denied 
the  faith,  and  is  an  Infidel. 

Then  it  will  be  seen  that  the  true  function  of  the 
powerful  class,  —  men  strong  by  Money,  wherein  New 
England  is  so  rich,  men  strong  by  Culture,  whereof 
New  England  is  even  now  so  poor  —  is  to  do  mankind 
an  eminent  service ;  to  protect  the  needy,  the  defenceless, 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  201 

the  ignorant,  and  the  wretched.  Riches  are  valuable  a8 
they  fertilize  the  soil  for  human  excellence  to  grow  on, 
not  for  some  lazy  weed  to  rise  and  rot.  If  wealth  im- 
poverish him  that  gets,  or  those  from  whom  it  was  won, 
there  is  a  tw^ofold  curse,  blasting  him  that  takes,  and 
those  who  aid  therein.  If  superior  culture  only  shuts 
out  the  scholar  from  common  men,  he  had  better  have 
spent  his  years  in  a  coal  pit  than  a  college.  True  re- 
ligion, true  manhood,  teaches  that  if  you  receive  genius 
and  talent  from  God,  or  culture  at  the  cost  of  men  — 
you  owe  the  use  of  all  to  men,  to  the  poor,  the  ignorant, 
the  feeble-minded.  Science  is  moral  when  it  opens  the 
eyes  of  the  blind,  and  teaches  the  foohsh  to  understand 
wisdom  ;  Wealth  is  pious  when  it  helps  Charity  palliate 
the  ills  she  cannot  cure,  and  aids  Justice  to  extirpate 
the  wrongs  which  curse  mankind ;  Strength  is  religious 
when  it  bears  the  burdens  of  the  weak. 

When  the  knowledge  of  the  infinite  God  is  spread 
abroad  in  Society,  social  honors  will  not  be  given  to 
a  man  for  the  accident  of  famous  birth,  or  merely  for 
gathered  gold ;  not  for  the  station  to  which  some  human 
chance  has  blown  the  man ;  not  for  his  culture  of  intel- 
lect alone,  nor  for  the  dear  gift  of  genius  which  God 
gave  him  at  his  birth ;  but  for  the  use  he  makes  of  his 
native  gifts  or  labored  acquisitions ;  for  his  faithfulness 
to  himself,  to  man,  and  God ;  for  his  justice,  his  love, 
and  his  piety,  shown  by  the  use  of  one  talent  or  ten. 

There  will  always  be  diversities  in  natural  powers 
and  in  the  use  thereof,  and  so  diversities  of  culture,  of 
property,  of  social  station  and  social  power.  God  is 
democratic  and  loves  all,  but  the  odds  between  the 
natural  gifts  of  John  and  James  may  be  greater  than 
the  difference  betwixt  the  plains  of  Lombardy  and  the 
Alps  which  look  down  thereon.     Men  may  try  to  forget 


202  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

this  fact ;  America  may  put  little,  mean  men  with  me- 
diocrity of  intellect,  into  her  president's  chair ;  may  put 
little  mean  men  with  ordinary  mind  and  with  feeble 
conscience,  with  inferior  affections  and  a  paltry  soul, 
into  their  pulpits;  but  Crod  still  goes  on  creating  his 
great  masterly  men,  with  immense  intellect  and  com- 
mensurate   moral,    ati'ectional,    and    religious    powers, 
who  while  they  come  to  bless,  perforce,  must  overaw^e 
and  terrify  the  littleness  which  biurows  in  state  and 
church ;  men  who  receive  the  earliest  salutation  of  new- 
rising  truth,  and  shed  it  down,  reflecting  from  far  up 
the  Higher   Law's   intolerable   day  on   president   and 
priest.    Alas,  great  minds  have  hitherto  been  commonly 
the  tyrants  of  the  times,  oppressors  in  the  state,  and  worse 
oppressors  in  the  church :   and  humble  men  believed 
that  God  was  only  Might,  not  also  Right  and  Love; 
so  they  paid  a  base  and  servile  homage  to  the  great 
oppressor,  and  trod  down  justice,  mercy,  love,  in  their 
haste  to  kneel  before  a  Pope  or  King :  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth is  still  exceptional  in  the  wodd's  long  life ;  Napo- 
leon is  instantial.     But  if  selfish  popes  and  kings  are 
common  history,  the  self-denying  Christ  is  prophecy  of 
what  one  day  shall  be.     For  as  God  made  the  moun- 
tains stony,  huge,  and  tall,  that  they,  screening  the  vale 
below,  might  WTCstie  with  the  storm,  and  clothe  their 
shoulders  writh  ice   and   snow  —  garments  woven  for 
them  and  careftdly  put  on  by  each  wa^-faring  cloud,  — 
and  therewith  robe  the  plains  beneath  in  green  and 
van-colored  dress ;  so  has  he  made  great,  momitainous- 
minded  men  as  forts  of  defence  for  all  the  rest,  and 
treasuries  of  help.     Great  men  shaU  not  always  misuse 
their  five  talents,  nor  lirde  men  hide  their  one  piece  of 
the  Lord's  small  money  in  the  ground ;  mankind  long 
stumbling  wdll  one  day  learn  to  walk. 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  203 

Then  men  will  see  that  that  is  the  most  religious 
community  where,  proportionately,  the  most  pains  is 
taken  to  secure  the  welfare  of  all,  to  speed  Genius  on 
its  triumphant  way,  to  help  the  poor,  the  feeble,  men 
of  imperfect  body  and  imperfect  brain,  and  those  sad 
wrecks  of  circumstance  we  now  pile  up  in  jaUs  to 
moulder  and  to  rot.  A  Steeple  and  a  Gallows  will  not 
always  be  the  signs  significant  of  a  Christian  land.  Men 
will  not  measure  the  religion  of  society  by  the  number 
of  the  temples  and  priests,  but  by  the  colleges  and 
school-houses,  the  hospitals,  the  asylums  for  the  old, 
the  sick,  the  deaf,  the  blind,  the  foolish,  the  crazy,  and 
the  criminal ;  nay,  they  will  measure  it  by  the  honest 
Industry  in  business  ;  by  Truth  in  science  ;  by  Beauty 
in  literature ;  by  Justice  in  the  state ;  by  the  Comfort, 
the  Health,  the  Manhood  of  the  men. 

Look  at  this  in  its  Ecclesiastical  form,  that  of  Human 
Life  in  Churches.  Men  will  combine  about  some  able 
man  for  these  three  purposes  —  to  kindle  their  religious 
Feelings  by  social  communion ;  to  learn  the  true  Idea 
of  God,  of  Man,  and  of  the  Relation  between  the  two, 
the  idea  of  duty  to  be  done  and  rights  to  be  possessed ; 
to  make  the  idea  a  Fact,  so  that  what  at  first  was  but 
subjective  feeling,  then  a  thought,  shall  next  be  trans- 
lated into  deed,  done  into  Men,  Families,  Communities, 
States,  and  a  World,  and  so  the  Ideal  of  God  become 
the  Achievement  of  Mankind. 

Then  the  function  of  the  Church  will  be  to  keep 
all  the  old  which  is  good,  and  get  all  possible  good 
which  is  new.  No  creed,  no  history,  or  Bible  shall 
interpose  a  cloud  betwixt  Man  and  God ;  reverence  for 
Moses,  Jesus,  or  Mohammed  shall  be  no  more  a  stone 
between   our   eyes   and   truth,  but  a  glass   telescopic, 


204  PRACTICAL    THEISM. 

microscopic,  to  bring  the  thought  of  God  yet  nearer  to 
our  heart.  The  Bible's  letter  shall  no  longer  kill ;  but 
the  spirit  which  "touched  Isaiah's  hallowed  lips  with 
fire,"  and  flamed  in  the  life  of  a  Nazarene  Carpenter 
till  its  light  shone  round  the  world,  will  dwell  also  in 
many  a  new-born  soul.  No  man  shall  be  master,  to 
rule  with  authority  over  our  necks ;  but  whoso  can 
teach  shall  be  our  friend  and  guide  to  help  us  on  the 
heavenly  road. 

Then  the  minister  must  be  a  man  selected  for  Ms 
human  power,  —  for  his  power  of  mind,  of  conscience, 
and  of  heart  and  soul ;  with  well-born  genius  if  we  can 
find  it,  with  well-developed  talents  at  the  least.  His 
function  will  be  to  help  awaken  the  feeling  of  Piety  in 
all  men's  hearts  ;  to  bring  to  light  the  ideas  of  Absolute 
Religion  which  human  nature  travails  with,  longing  to 
bear ;  and  to  make  the  inward  worship,  also,  outward 
act.  He  must  help  apply  this  idea  to  life.  Negatively 
—  this  will  be  criticism,  exposure  of  the  false,  the  ugly, 
and  the  wrong,  the  painful  part  of  preaching,  the  sur- 
gery of  the  church.  Positively — it  will  be  creation, 
making  application  of  religion  to  the  individual,  the 
family,  community,  state,  and  world.  So  the  minister 
will  not  aim  to  appease  an  offended  God,  grim,  re- 
vengeful, and  fuU  of  paltry  resentment ;  nor  to  commu- 
nicate a  purchased  salvation  from  the  fabled  torments 
of  heU  ;  nor  to  add  the  imputed  righteousness  of  a  good 
man  to  help  us  to  an  unreal  heaven.  But  with  the 
consciousness  of  God  in  his  heart,  with  the  certain 
knowledge  of  God's  infinite  perfection,  sure  of  the  per- 
fect motive,  purpose,  means  of  God  and  conscious  of 
eternal  life,  he  is  to  preach  the  natural  laws  of  man. 
He  is  to  lead  in  science,  if  it  be  possible,  —  in  physics, 
ethics,  metaphysics ;  to  lead  in  justice,  applying  its  ab- 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  205 

stract  laws  to  concrete  life  —  not  to  hinder  them  by  in- 
stitutions, or  by  books,  by  the  Vedas,  the  Koran,  or  the 
Testament ;  to  lead  in  love,  connubial,  friendly,  philan- 
thropic ;  ay,  to  lead  in  holiness,  —  the  subjective  service 
of  God  which  is  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  the  ob- 
jective worship,  which  is  service  by  the  normal  use,  de- 
velopment, and  enjoyment  of  every  limb  of  the  body, 
every  faculty  of  the  spirit,  every  power  acquired  over 
matter  or  man.  He  will  be  more  anxious  to  understand 
truth,  beauty,  and  justice,  to  have  love  and  faith  ;  more 
anxious  to  communicate  these  to  man,  and  organize 
them  into  individual,  domestic,  social,  national,  human 
life,  than  to  baptize  men  in  water  from  the  Jordan, 
the  Ganges,  or  the  Irrawaddy.  He  wHl  be  accounted 
the  most  valuable  minister  who  most  helps  forward 
the  highest  development  of  mankind ;  and  that  will  be 
held  as  the  most  religious  Church  whose  members  live 
the  manliest  life  of  the  body  and  the  spirit  —  with  the 
most  of  normal  use,  development,  and  enjoyment  of  all 
their  nature,  —  do  the  most  of  human  duty,  enjoy  the 
most  of  human  rights,  and  so  have  the  most  and  the 
manliest  delight  in  themselves,  in  Nature,  in  Man  and 
God. 

See  this  religion  in  the  Political  Form,  that  of  Human 
Life  in  Nations.  Here  the  aim  will  be  to  take  the 
Constitution  of  the  Universe  for  the  foundation  of  po- 
litical institutions,  making  absolute  Justice  the  standard 
measure  in  aJl  political  affairs,  and  re  enacting  the 
Higher  Law  of  God  into  all  the  statutes  of  the  people's 
code.  Men  of  Genius,  in  all  its  many  modes,  will  be 
the  nation's  telescopic  eye  to  discover  the  Eternal  Right. 
The  highest  thought  of  the  most  gifted  and  best  cul- 
tured men  will  become  the  ideal  which  the  nation  seeks 

18 


206  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

to  incorporate  in  its  code,  to  administer  in  its  courts, 
and  revive  in  its  daily  life.  That  will  be  thought  the 
most  religious  nation  whose  institutions,  constitutions, 
statutes,  and  decisions,  conform  the  most  to  abstract 
right,  applying  this  to  its  action  abroad  and  at  home ; 
where  the  whole  people  are  the  best  and  the  best 
off;  and  the  higher  law  of  God  is  carried  out  in  the  ac- 
tion of  the  nation  with  other  states,  of  the  government 
with  the  people,  of  class  with  class,  and  of  man  with 
man.  As  proofs  of  the  national  religion  you  will  bring 
forward  the  character  of  the  people  —  their  conduct 
abroad  and  at  home,  their  institutions  and  their  men. 

This  religion  must  take  a  Cosmic,  or  General  Human 
Form,  in  the  Life  of  Mankind.  It  will  unite  all  nations 
into  one  great  bond  of  brotherhood.  As  the  members 
and  various  faculties  of  Thomas  or  Edward  are  con- 
joined in  a  man,  with  personal  unity  for  all,  but  indi- 
vidual freedom  for  each ;  as  several  persons  are  joined 
together  in  a  family,  with  domestic  unity  for  all,  but 
individual  freedom  for  each;  as  the  families  form  a 
community,  and  the  communities  a  state,  with  social 
and  national  unity  of  action,  but  yet  with  domestic  and 
social  individuality  of  action;  so  the  nations  of  the 
world  will  join  together,  all  working  with  cosmic  human 
unity  of  action,  but  each  having  its  own  national  indi- 
viduality of  action.  This  would  realize  the  dim  ideal 
of  Pagan  Zeno  —  who  counted  men,  "  not  as  Athenians 
and  Persians,  but  as  joint-tenants  of  a  common  field  to 
be  tilled  for  the  advantage  of  aU  and  each,"  —  and  ot 
Christian  Paul  —  who  taught  that  the  God  whom  the 
Athenians  ignorantly  worshipped  "  made  of  one  blood 
aU  nations  of  men." 

Then  law  would  be  justice,  loyalty  righteousness,  and 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  207 

patriotism  humanity.  Men  conscious  of  the  same 
human  nature,  and  consciously  serving  the  infinite  God, 
must  needs  find  their  religion  transcending  the  bounds 
of  their  Family,  Community,  Church  and  Nation,  and 
reaching  out  to  every  human  soul.  But  hitherto  forms 
of  religion  have  been  a  wedge  to  sever  men,  and  not  a 
tie  to  bind.  The  popular  theologies  of  the  world  in  this 
life  aim  to  separate  the  "  Christian"  from  the  "  Heathen," 
the  Protestant  from  the  CathoHc,  the  Unitarian  from  the 
Trinitarian,  the  new  school  from  the  old  school ;  and  in 
the  next  life,  the  "  reprobate  "  from  the  "  elect,"  the  sin- 
ner from  the  saint. 


On  the  last  five  Sundays,  I  have  spoken  of  Atheism 
and  of  the  Popular  Theology.  I  hope  I  did  no  injus- 
tice to  Atheism,  none  to  the  Atheist.  It  is  a  sad 
thought,  his  world  without  a  God ;  his  here,  but  no 
Hereafter ;  his  body,  and  no  Soul.  I  hope  I  did  him 
no  injustice.  One  thing  he  surely  has  that  the  popular 
theologian  has  not :  he  has  Freedom ;  freedom  from 
fear,  freedom  to  use  his  faculties.  This  freedom  will 
last  forever.  But  the  theory  of  the  atheist  abuts  in 
selfishness,  and  in  darkness  his  little  light  goes  out. 

I  hope  I  did  no  injustice  to  the  Popular  Theology. 
It  is  grim,  it  is  awful.  It  bears  great  truths  in  its 
bosom,  and  those  truths  will  last  forever  ;  but  the  popu- 
lar theology  as  a  system  must  fall.  It  rests  on  two 
columns. 

One  is  the  Idea  of  an  Angry  God,  imperfect  in  wis- 
dom, in  power,  in  justice,  love,  and  holiness ;  a  finite, 
and  jealous,  and  revengeful  God ;  creating  man  from 
mean  motives,  for  a  mean  purpose,  and  of  a  mean 
material,  —  God  with  a  hell  under  his   feet,   "  paved 


208  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

with  skulls  of  infants  not  a  span  long,"  and  swarming 
full  of  horrid,  writhing  life,  that  chokes  it  to  the  brim. 

The  other  pillar  is  the  Idea  of  a  Supernatural  Christ, 
a  God  and  yet  a  man,  with  a  supernatural  birth,  super- 
natural works,  resurrection,  and  ascension  —  a  super- 
natural atoning  sacrifice  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  These  are  the  Jachin  and  Boaz  of  this  the- 
ology. 

Philosophy  strikes  down  the  first  column,  and  there 
is  no  angry  God,  no  infinite  hell  "  paved  with  skulls  of 
infants  not  a  span  long,"  and  full  of  horrid,  writhing 
life ;  and  so  Theology  swings  in  the  air  at  one  end. 

Criticism  strilves  away  the  other  piUar,  the  super- 
natural Christ :  there  is  no  supernatural  Christ,  a  God 
and  yet  a  man,  with  a  supernatural  birth,  supernatural 
works,  resurrection,  ascension,  —  an  atoning  sacrifice  to 
take  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  And  so  Theology 
swings  in  the  air  at  the  other  end.  It  lacks  a  philo- 
sophical basis  and  historical  foundation  ;  false  in  its 
idea,  and  false  also  in  its  historic  fact. 

The  scientific  atheist  mocks  at  the  God  of  the  popu- 
lar theology.  Lalande  says,  I  have  looked  far  off 
through  my  telescope,  and  there  is  no  God  betwixt  me 
and  the  furthest  star,  for  I  have  seen  all  the  way 
through.  Ehrenberg,  with  his  microscope,  finds  a  mil- 
lion million  of  creatures  in  a  single  cubic  inch  of  polish- 
ing slate  from  Germany;  but  he  finds  no  theological 
God  therein.  The  chemist  analyzes  the  materials  of 
the  world  into  their  elements,  and  he  finds  oxygen,  car- 
bon, and  the  rest,  but  he  finds  no  theologic  God  therein. 
The  scientific  atheist  mocks  at  the  Church's  God. 

The  popular  idea  of  God  is  inadequate  for  Science ; 
ay,  yet  worse,  it  is  inadequate  for  Philanthropy  ;  for  the 
philanthropist   loves   the   poor,  the    beggar,   loves   the 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  209 

Indian,  the  slave,  the  outcast,  the  atheist,  and  the 
criminal ;  and  Theology  says  "  The  slave  is  the  pos- 
terity of  Ham,  whom  God  cursed  by  Noah  and  spurned 
from  his  feet ;  and  sinners  are  to  have  an  everlasting 
hell  in  the  world  to  come."  The  atheists  turn  off  with 
scorn  from  the  theologic  idea  of  a  God  who  knows  less 
than  Alphonso  of  Castile  ;  and  the  philanthropist,  with 
a  tear,  turns  from  the  damning  deity  of  the  popular 
Church. 

Hence  comes  the  position  of  Religion  to-day.  Look 
at  Boston:  how  small  is  the  Church  and  how  poor; 
how  big  is  the  tavern  and  how  rich !  Why,  the  keeper 
of  the  tavern  in  Boston  is  more  influential  than  "  the 
minister  of  Christ : "  the  consecrated  preacher  in  his 
pulpit  trembles  before  Felix  in  his  bar.  The  Holy 
Ghost  of  the  Church,  with  the  other  two  persons  of 
the  Trinity,  yields  to  the  Spirit  of  the  Tavern ;  there  is 
"  no  room  for  them  in  the  inn ;  "  happy  if  they  can  find 
a  manger  with  the  oxen,  and  a  swaddling  garment  for 
their  new-born  piety  in  the  cattle's  crib.  Look  at  Bos- 
ton, with  its  hundred  clergymen,  —  religion  is  no  re- 
straint in  business,  no  restraint  in  politics ;  not  at  aU ; 
and  in  our  literature  of  mediocrity,  —  that  is  the  only 
literature  which  America  yet  possesses  —  religion  is  a 
force  infinitesimally  small,  and  not  felt.  It  dares  not 
speak  against  drunkenness  and  prostitution ;  it  is  dumb 
religion,  and  dares  not  even  oppose  the  stealing  of  men 
out  of  their  houses  in  this  town.  The  minister's  "  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world ; "  no,  verily,  it  belongs  to  a 
world  that  is  dead  and  gone.  Respectable  gentlemen 
do  not  ask  Morahty  in  a  lawyer ;  they  expect  it  not  in 
a  politician ;  they  ask  it  of  the  minister.  God  be 
thanked,  they  do  ask  some  little  of  it  there.  But  it  is 
only  moral  decency,  —  compliance  with  easy-mannered 

18* 


210  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

virtue,  not  the  morality  of  a  Paul  whose  spirit  was 
stirred  in  him  when  he  saw  the  city  wholly  given  to 
idolatry  ;  no,  it  is  only  the  Ephesian  morality  of  Deme- 
trius !  But  a  lawyer  whose  life  is  corrupt,  who  is  un- 
scrupulous and  unprincipled,  or  a  politician  w^ho  is  rotten, 
will  not  find  that  he  is  less  trusted  by  the  great  cities 
of  this  country.  Tell  men  that  slavery  is  wicked ;  that 
to  play  the  pirate  in  Cuba  is  sin,  —  what  do  they  say  ? 
They  quote  the  constitution.  "Politics  is  national 
housekeeping,  not  national  morality,"  say  they.  "  Talk 
of  the  Higher  Law,  do  you  ?  You  are  a  fanatic !  We 
disposed  of  that  long  ago." 

I  say  the  Popular  Theology  is  not  a  "  finality,"  —  to 
use  the  language  of  the  day.  It  is  doomed  to  perish. 
Let  me  do  it  no  injustice.  Mankind  is  very  serious  ;  a 
very  honest  mankind ;  and  its  great  works  are  done 
with  sweat  and  watching  and  sore  travail.  Down  on 
its  knees  went  mankind  to  pray  for  this  theology ;  and 
we  have  it.  With  many  faults  it  has  great  truths.  The 
truths  will  never  perish ;  they  will  last  whUe  God  is 
God.  Even  its  faults  have  done  mankind  no  small 
service.  War  has  taught  us  activity,  and  discipline  of 
body  and  mind ;  has  helped  the  organization  of  men ; 
shown  the  power  of  thousands  when  molten  to  a  single 
mass,  and  wielded  by  a  single  will.  But  the  popular 
theology  has  taught  greater  things  than  that:  it  has 
shown  the  omnipotent  obligation  of  Duty ;  to  sacrifice 
every  thing  for  God  —  the  body  and  the  spirit,  the  in- 
tellect, with  its  pride  of  reasoning,  the  conscience  with 
its  righteousness;  the  affections,  with  their  love  of 
father  and  mother  and  wife  and  child.  The  warrior 
all  stained  with  blood  and  sweating  with  his  lust,  it 
taught  to  subordinate  the  flesh  to  the  spirit,  to  scorn 
the  joys  of  the  sense,  to  practise  self-denial  of  ease  and 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  211 

honor  and  health  and  riches  and  hfe,  for  the  good  that 
is  purely  spiritual.  This  is  the  lesson  which  ascetic 
Protestantism  has  so  grimly  taught  to  you  and  me,  and 
ascetic  Catholicism  to  the  Christian  world.  The  monks 
and  nuns,  the  martyrs  of  the  Inquisition,  the  saints  who 
went  hungry  and  naked  and  cold ;  the  infidels  and 
atheists  who  turned  off  from  all  reUgion  frighted  by 
this  bugbear  of  the  Church ;  the  dreadful  doubts  and 
feajs  and  madness  and  despair  of  the  world,  — these  are 
the  tuition  fees  w^hich  mankind  has  paid  for  this  great 
lesson. 

Let  this  theology  pass.  Science  hates  it.  Every 
Cyrena  from  the  London  clay  —  a  leaf  gathered  from 
the  Book  of  God  now  newly  unfolded  from  the  flinty 
keeping  of  a  pebble  on  a  subterranean  beach,  myriads 
of  years  older  than  Moses — confutes  Moses  and  turns 
the  popular  Theology  upside  down.  Philanthropy  hates 
it ;  hates  its  jealous  God,  its  narrow  love,  its  pitiless 
torment,  and  its  bottomless  and  hopeless  hell.  Let  it 
pass.  It  can  do  little  for  us  now ;  little  for  the  mind 
and  the  conscience  of  the  world ;  nothing  for  the  affec- 
tions, nothing  for  the  soul.  It  can  only  drive  men  by 
fear,  not  charm  by  love.  Let  it  pass;  and  its  minis- 
ters tremble  before  the  bank,  the  shop,  and  the  tavern. 
Let  the  churchling  crouch  down  before  the  worldling 
if  he  will. 

But  will  Atheism  aid  us  any  more  ?  It  will  do  noth- 
ing, cheer  nothing.  It  has  only  this  to  perform,  —  to 
rid  men  of  fear  and  bondage  to  ancient  creeds.  It 
never  was  a  spring  of  action,  and  never  can  be.  No ! 
"We  must  root  into  the  soil  of  God,  else  we  perish  for 
lack  of  earth.  An  earth  without  a  Heaven,  a  here 
with  no  Hereafter,  a  body  without  a  Soul,  and  a  world 
without  a   God  —  will   that   content   the   science    and 


212  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

satisfy  the  philosophy  of  these  times  ?  FUl  your  mouth 
with  the  east  wind!  Atheism  can  never  teach  man 
that  solemn,  beautiful  word,  —  I  oug'ht;  only  I  must, 
which  is  Fatalism  ;  or  /  will,  which  is  Libertinism ; 
never  /  oug'ht,  which  is  the  mark  of  perfect  obedience, 
and  perfect  freedom  too.  Atheism  knows  not  the  word 
Duty  which  marries  Might  with  Right. 

Well,  shall  we  be  without  religion,  —  this  Caucasian 
race,  which  has  outgrown  the  worship  of  Nature,  Poly- 
theism, the  Hebrew  form  of  faith,  classic  Deism,  and  is 
fast  outgrowing  this  popular  Theology?  I  smile  at 
the  dreadful  thought.  Shall  the  great  forces  of  modern 
civilization  be  wielded  only  for  material  ends  ?  Here  is 
America,  a  young  nation,  yet  giant  strong,  with  twenty 
million  souls  all  cradled  in  her  lap ;  and  three  million 
souls  spurned  as  dust  beneath  her  cruel  feet.  She  has 
set  her  heart  on  this  continent,  "  I  will  have  all  this 
goodly  land,"  quoth  she.  She  has  set  her  affections  on 
money,  vulgar  fame,  and  power.  Every  mountain  gives 
us  coal,  iron,  lead,  water  for  our  mill;  Cahfornia  de- 
lights to  tempt  us  with  her  gold.  And  America,  speak- 
ing with  the  new  and  brazen  trumpet  of  the  State,  says, 
"  There  is  no  Higher  Law  forbidding  me  to  plunder 
Spain  and  Mexico,  or  crush  the  Black  as  I  slew  the 
Red."  Says  America,  through  the  other  trumpet,  the 
old  and  brazen  trumpet  of  the  Church,  "  There  is  no 
Higher  Law !     Plunder  and  crush ! " 

Is  that  to  be  so  ?  Is  modern  civilization,  with 
science  that  formulates  the  heavens  and  reads  the 
hieroglyphics  of  the  sky,  with  mechanical  skill  which 
surpasses  all  the  dreams  of  faery,  —  modern  civilization, 
with  such  riches,  such  material  power,  such  science,  such 
physics,  etliics,  metaphysics,  with  Berlins  of  scientific 
lore,  with  London,  Paris,  and  New  York,  affluent  with 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  213 

energy  —  is  this  to  be  an  irreligious  civilization ;  genius 
without  justice,  riches  without  love,  organization  for 
the  strong,  the  rich,  and  the  noble-born,  an  organization 
to  oppress,  a  civilization  without  God  ?  No !  You  say- 
no,  and  I  say  no ;  human  history  says  no ;  human 
nature  says  no ! 

What  shall  hinder?  The  popular  Theology?  The 
usurer,  the  politician,  the  kidnapper,  in  their  selfishness, 
laugh  at  your  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  spurn 
at  your  hell.  The  Christian  churches  are  on  the  side 
of  sin;  oppression  is  favored  by  them  the  old  world 
through,  and  oppression  is  favored  by  them  the  new 
world  through.  "  Renounce  the  world ! "  says  the 
priest,  and  means  "  Renounce  the  Higher  Law  of  God." 
Soon  as  sin  is  popular  the  church  christens  it,  and  re- 
annexes  the  sin  to  itself.  Did  the  American  Church 
do  aught  against  the  Mexican  war  ?  Will  it  do  aught 
against  the  Cuban  war  ?  It  will  put  Cuban  gold  into 
its  treasury  to  evangeKze  the  heathen.  What  does  it 
do  against  the  awful  sin  of  America  at  this  day  ?  It 
has  strengthened  the  arm  of  the  oppressor ;  it  has 
riveted  chains  on  the  bondman's  neck.  But  just  now 
—  thanks  to  the  Almighty  God! — the  churches  of 
New  England  and  the  West,  met  in  solemn  convoca- 
tion at  Albany,  have  protested  against  this  mighty  sin ; 
and  have  charged  their  clergymen  who  went  to  those 
corners  of  the  land  where  the  sin  is  practised,  to  bear 
their  testimony  against  it ;  and  if  men  would  not  hear 
them,  then  to  depart  out  of  their  city.  This  is  the  first 
time ;  and  it  marks  the  turning  of  the  tide  which  ere- 
long will  leave  this  old  theology  all  high  and  dry  upon 
the  sand,  a  Tadmor  in  the  desert. 

The  religion  which  we  want  must  be  of  another 
stamp.     It  must  recognize  the  Infinite  God,  who  is  not 


214  PRACTICAL  THEISM. 

to  be  feared,  but  loved  ;  not  God  who  thunders  out  of 
Sinai  in  uiiraciilous  wrath,  but  who  shines  out  of  the 
sun  on  evil  and  on  good,  in  never-ending  love.  It  must 
respect  the  universe,  matter,  and  man ;  and  worship 
God  by  natural  Piety  and  sene  Him  with  the  INIorality 
of  nature. 

Then  what  a  force  Religion  will  be !  There  \^-ill  be 
a  religrion  for  the  bodv,  to  sen^e  God  "vs'ith  every  limb 
thereof;  a  religion  for  the  intellect,  and  we  shaU  hear 
no  more  of  "  atheistic  science,"  but  Lalande  shall  find 
God  all  the  world  through,  in  every  scintillation  of  the 
furthest  star  he  looks  at,  and  Ehrenberg  confront  the 
Infinite  in  each  animated  dot  or  cell  of  fife  his  glass 
brings  out  to  light ;  yea,  the  chemist  wiU  meet  the 
Omnipresent  in  every  atom  of  every  ga§.  Then  there 
shall  be  a  religion  for  Conscience,  the  great  Justice ;  a 
religion  for  the  Affections,  the  great  Love;  a  religion 
for  the  Soul,  perfect  Absolute  Trust  in  God,  Joy  in  God, 
Delight  in  this  Father  and  Mother  too. 

Then  what  Men  shall  we  have !  not  dwarfed  and 
crippled,  but  giant  men.  Christlike  as  Christ  What 
Families  I  woman  emancipated  and  lifted  up.  What 
Communities  I  a  society  without  a  slave,  without  a 
pauper  ;  society  -v^-ithout  ignorance,  wealth  \^'ithout 
crime.  What  Churches  I  Think  of  the  eight  and 
twenty  thousand  Protestant  churches  of  America,  with 
their  eight  and  twenty  thousand  Protestant  ministers, 
with  a  free  press,  and  a  free  pulpit,  and  think  of  their 
influence  if  every  man  of  them  believed  in  the  Infinite 
God,  and  taught  that  the  service  of  God  was  by  natural 
Piety  \s-ithin  and  natural  ^Morality  without ;  that  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  imputed  righteousness,  or  salva- 
tion by  Christ ;  but  that  real  righteousness  was  honored 
before  God,  and  salvation  by  character,  by  effort,  by 


PRACTICAL  THEISM.  215 

prayer,  and  by  toil,  was  the  work !    Then  what  a  nation 
should  we  have !  ay,  what  a  world ! 

We  shall  have  it;  it  is  in  your  heart  and  in  my  heart; 
for  God,  when  he  put  this  idea  into  human  nature, 
meant  that  it  should  only  go  before  the  fact,  —  the 
John  the  Baptist  that  heralds  the  coming  of  the  great 
Messiah. 

"  Eternal  Truth  shines  on  o'er  errors'  cloud, 

Which  from  our  darkness  hides  the  livinjT  light : 

Wherefore,  when  the  true  Bard  hath  sung  aloud 
His  soul-song  to  the  unreceptive  night, 
His  words,  like  fiery  arrows  must  alight. 

Or  soon,  or  late,  and  kindle  through  the  earth, 

Till  Falsehood  from  his  lair  be  frighted  forth. 

"  Work  on,  oh  fainting  Heart,  speak  out  thy  Truth ; 

Somewhere  thy  winged  heart-seeds  will  be  blown, 
And  be  a  grove  of  Pines ;  from  mouth  to  mouth. 

O'er  oceans,  into  speech  and  lands  unknown, 

E'en  till  the  long-foreseen  result  be  grown 
To  ripeness,  filled  like  fruit,  with  other  seed. 
Which  Time  shall  plant  anew,  and  gather  when  men  need.** 


SERMON  VII. 


OF    IMMORTAL     LIFE 


19 


(217) 


1  CORINTHIANS  XV.  4d 


WE   SHALL  ALSO   BEAR  THE  IMAGE   OF  THE  HEAVENLY. 


(218) 


VII. 

OF  THE  FUNCTION  AND  INFLUENCE   OF  THE  IDEA 
OF  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 


I  ASK  your  attention  this  morning  to  a  sermon  of  the 
true  Function  and  legitimate  Influence  of  the  Idea  of 
Immortahty.  The  subject  is  most  intimately  connected 
with  the  Theism  lately  spoken  of. 

The  boy  stolen  from  his  mother  by  wolves  in  Hin- 
dostan,  and  brought  up  by  them  with  their  own  young, 
becomes  like  a  wolf.  He  seems  to  have  no  thought 
except  for  the  day ;  his  motives  are  gathered  only  from 
his  present  wants;  no  more.  He  satisfies  his  animal 
appetites,  and  then  sleeps.  Behold  the  sum  of  his  con- 
sciousness !  He  knows  no  past,  cares  for  no  future,  and 
has  nothing  within  him  which  checks  any  instinctive 
desire.  There  is  man  reduced  to  his  lowest  terms, 
living  from  the  lowest  motives,  animal  selfishness ;  for 
the  lowest  ends,  animal  existence,  brute  enjoyment ;  by 
the  lowest  means,  the  instinct  of  brute  desire.  In  that 
case  human  nature  is  as  poor  as  it  can  live. 

The  cultivated  citizen  of  Boston  extends  his  thought 
in  the  present,  to  all  the  corners  of  the  earth,  takes  in 
aU  the  countries  of  the  globe ;  the  doings  in  Em-ope 

(219) 


220  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

and  in  Asia  affect  his  daily  consciousness.  He  em- 
braces the  stars  of  heaven ;  his  telescopic  thought 
sweeps  the  horizon  of  the  universe.  The  discovery  of 
a  new  planet  is  a  joy  to  him,  though  his  eye  shall  never 
taste  its  light.  He  connects  himself  with  the  past ;  he 
remembers  his  father  and  his  mother,  loving  to  trace 
his  branch  of  the  family-tree  far  down,  —  now  to  a 
New  England  sachem,  now  to  a  Norman  king,  or  till 
it  touches  the  ground  in  some  Teutonic  savage  three 
thousand  years  ago.  He  loves  to  follow  its  roots  under- 
ground to  Noah,  or  Adam,  or  Deucalion,  or  Thoth,  or 
some  other  imaginary  character  in  the  Heathen  or 
Hebrew  mythology.  Thus  he  enlarges  his  present  con- 
sciousness by  recollecting  or  imagining  the  past,  and  is 
richer  for  every  step  he  takes  in  history  or  fantasy.  Not 
satisfied  with  this,  he  reaches  forth  to  the  future,  with 
one  hand  building  genealogies  and  tombs  for  his  grand- 
sires,  and  with  the  other  houses  for  his  grandchildren. 

Thus  our  cultivated  man  enlarges  his  consciousness 
by  the  thought  of  men  that  are  about  him,  behind  him, 
and  before  him ;  all  of  these  lay  their  hands,  as  it  were, 
upon  his  shoulders,  to  magnetize  him  with  their  man- 
hood, present,  past,  or  to  come ;  for  as  there  is  a  long 
train  of  men,  our  brothers,  reaching  out  from  you  and 
me  to  the  furthest  verge  of  the  green  earth,  so  there  is 
another  long  train,  six  hundred  or  six  thousand  genera- 
tions deep,  standing  behind  us,  each  laying  its  hands 
on  its  forerunner's  shoulders,  and  aU  communicating 
their  blood  and  their  civilization  unto  us  who  inherit 
the  result  of  their  bodily  and  spiritual  toil. 

It  is  a  delight  thus  to  extend  our  personality  in 
Space,  by  knowledge  of  matter  and  man,  and  control 
over  both ;  and  in  Time,  by  our  connection  with  the 
family,  reaching  both   ways,   by   our   relation   to  the 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  221 

human  race,  in  its  indefinite  extent  backwards  and 
around  us  on  either  hand.  Human  motives  are  gather- 
ed from  the  whole  range  of  human  consciousness  and 
human  knowledge,  and  our  inward  life  is  enlarged  and 
enriched  by  the  sweep  of  our  intellect. 

Sp  the  daily  life  of  a  civilized  man  in  Boston  comes 
to  be  consciously  influenced  by  his  wider  knowledge  of 
the  present,  by  his  acquaintance  with  the  past,  by  his 
anticipations  of  the  future.  This  man  is  checked  from 
wrong  and  encouraged  to  good,  by  the  character  of  his 
acquaintances  about  him;  some  men  by  recollecting 
their  father  and  their  mother,  whose  names  we  would 
not  sully  with  our  daily  sin.  Almost  every  parent  is 
animated  by  the  desire  to  bless  his  children  in  genera- 
tions that  are  to  come.  Thus  the  generations  are 
bound  together,  and  the  personality  of  John  and  Jane 
in  actual  history  is  carried  back  to  the  first  man,  and 
in  fancy  is  carried  forward  to  the  last.  A  grandfather 
in  the  house,  a  baby  in  the  cradle,  a  mother  at  hand  or 
afar  off  in  the  hills  of  Berkshire,  remembering  us  in  her 
evening  prayer,  —  each  of  these  is  a  hostage  for  the 
good  conduct  of  mortal  men.  This  young  man  will 
not  dice  or  drink  lest  he  wound  the  bosom  which  bore 
him.  That  young  woman  denies  herself  for  her  child, 
forbears  the  enormities  of  life  lest  she  should  poison  the 
blood  in  the  veins  of  one  not  yet  born,  or  now  drinking 
life  from  her  breast.  The  wider  is  the  circle  of  human 
observation,  without  or  within,  the  more  plenteous  is 
the  harvest  of  motive  and  delight  gleaned  up  there- 
from. 

But  men  go  further  than  that,  and  extend  their  in- 
dividuality beyond  the  grave.  The  belief  in  the  future 
life  is  at  first  a  dim  sentiment,  an  instinctive  feeling, 
then  a  conscious  desire,  a  dreaming  of  immortality; 

19* 


222  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

then  the  hope  and  fear  thereof;  and  at  last  it  is  a  cer- 
tain confidence  in  eternal  life,  an  absolute  delight  in 
immortahty. 

Thus  successively  the  human  landscape  widens  out 
from  the  wolf's  den  of  that  savage  boy  till  it  takes  in 
family,  neighborhood,  nation,  mankind,  all  ages  past 
on  earth,  all  generations  yet  to  come ;  yes,  till  our 
horizon  of  consciousness  in  its  sweep  includes  God  and 
Eternity. 

There  is  a  God  of  Infinite  Perfection:  the  Soul  of 
each  man  is  destined  to  Eternal  Life.  These  are  the 
two  greatest  truths  which  human  consciousness  as  yet 
has  ever  entertained.  They  are  the  most  important; 
and  if  the  human  treasures  of  thought  were  to  go  to 
the  ground  and  perish,  all  save  what  some  few  men 
grasped  in  their  hands  and  fled  off  with,  escaping  from 
a  new  deluge,  should  clutch  these  two  truths  as  the 
most  priceless  treasure  which  the  human  race  had  won, 
and  journey  off  with  them  to  pitch  my  tent  anew,  and 
with  these  treasures  build  up  a  fresh  and  glorious  civil- 
ization. When  a  man  is  influenced  by  hope  and  fear 
for  the  Future  World,  he  is  a  higher  being,  much 
higher,  than  when  this  life  was  the  limit  to  his  thought. 

But  the  influence  of  the  Idea  of  Immortality  has  by 
no  means  proved  an  unmixed  good.  It  has  brought 
much  evil  on  the  world.  It  has  been  connected  with 
the  idea  that  God  was  malignant ;  and  then  the  pros- 
pect of  future  life  has  been  the  culprit's  anticipation  of 
trial,  torture,  and  damnation  without  end.  Men  have 
believed  that  the  other  side  of  the  grave  the  Devil 
waited,  armed  with  his  torments,  to  seize  poor  Dives, 
who  had  his  "  good  things  in  this  life,"  and  in  the  next 
stage  make  him  smart  for  the  purple  and  fine  linen  he 
wore  in  this.     So  the  consciousness  of  immortality  has 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  223 

often  clouded  over  the  future  life  with  fear.  Thus 
there  is  a  popular  ballad  of  the  Middle  Ages  which  de- 
scribes a  boy  suffering  bereavement,  disease,  poverty, 
and  many  a  grief;  and  he  says, 

"  I  would  fain  lie  down  and  die, 
But  for  the  curse  of  immortality." 

I  have  heard  ministers  preach  whose  notions  of  the 
future  life  were  of  the  grimmest  sort,  —  so  that  with 
their  belief,  I  would  not  have  sent  a  rat  or  a  mouse  be- 
yond the  grave ;  nor  wished  my  worst  enemy  to  cross 
over,  —  and  yet  they  said  the  common  notion  of  im- 
mortal life  was  "  too  good  to  be  true ! "  It  was  too  bad 
to  be  true.  I  knew  it  was  so  bad  that  God  would  blot 
it  out  as  a  contradiction  which  could  not  be,  and  would 
never  allow  it  to  be  a  divine  fact,  only  a  human  folly, 
which  those  men  dreamed  of. 

In  virtue  of  this  fear,  the  belief  in  immortality  has 
secured  to  the  priesthood  an  immense  amount  of  power, 
and  excessive  dominion  over  mankind ;  an  authority 
wellnigh  irresponsible,  and  which  has  led  to  great 
cruelty  on  their  part.  The  priest  taught  men,  "  It  is  a 
terrible  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God. 
He  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day,  and  keeps  his 
anger  forever."  "  Alas,"  groaned  the  believer,  "  what 
shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Then  the  priest  replied,  "  /, 
and  I  alone,  can  appease  the  wrath  of  God.  O  selfish 
Baron  Rackrent,  fuU  of  sin,  and  waiting  to  die,  give  me 
thy  money,  give  the  Church  thy  broad  lands,  or  else 
forever  suffer  and  rot  in  hell !  "  And  the  Baron,  ex- 
tending his  selfishness  beyond  the  tomb,  frightened  at 
the  picture  of  the  "  Last  Judgment "  painted  on  the 
walls  of  the  Church,  or  the  "  Dance  of  Death  "  sculp- 
tured in  the   graveyard,  where  Death   and  the  Devil 


224  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

waltz  and  saraband  mankind  to  Hell,  gave  to  the  priests 
the  riches  which  they  set  their  celibate  hearts  upon,  and 
robbed  his  own  heirs  of  many  a  fair  rood  of  upland 
and  of  meadow  under  the  influence  of  this  fear  and 
of  the  priesthood  who  fanned  its  dreadful  flame. 

The  thought  of  immortality  has  turned  men  away 
from  natural  Piety  and  natural  Morality.  The  priest 
declared,  "  That  will  do  very  well  to  live  with,  it  is  good 
for  nothing  to  die  by."  So  this  belief,  thus  distorted, 
has  led  to  unnatural  modes  of  Life  ;  has  crushed  the  de- 
light out  of  many  a  heart,  and  has  hindered  the  human 
race  in  their  progress.  Even  now  the  fear  of  death  and 
of  torment  sicklies  over  the  countenance  of  men  when 
their  mortal  hour  draws  nigh ;  tears,  alarm,  and  whim- 
pering and  snivelling  on  a  death-bed,  are  commonly 
thought  by  ecclesiastical  persons  to  be  better  evidence 
of  religion  in  the  heart  than  a  life  forty  or  fifty  years 
long,  adorned  every  day  by  the  beauty  of  holiness 
within  and  the  beauty  of  righteousness  without. 

All  these  evils  come  from  the  idea  that  God  is  ma- 
lignant and  loves  to  torture  the  children  of  men;  and 
that  idea  itself  has  come  from  the  infancy  of  mankind, 
and  like  other  poor  follies  is  one  day  to  be  outgrown 
and  left  behind  us  with  the  childish  things  of  our  boy- 
hood. 

These  evils  continue  at  the  present  day;  for  God, 
though  called  a  Father,  is  commonly  thought  a  tyrant 
So  his  government  of  this  world  is  represented  as  a  ty- 
rannical despotism,  and  his  Heavenly  Kingdom  is  com- 
monly painted  so  that  it  is  the  last  thing  which  one 
would  think  of  with  pleasure.  I  never  saw  a  picture  of 
the  "  Last  Judgment,"  which  did  not  make  me  shiver 
with  horror  at  the  thought  that  any  man  could  be  so  sav- 
age as  to  paint  it.     I  never  read  a  "  Judgment  Hymn  " 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  225 

in  a  Psalmbook,  from  Origen  of  Alexandria  to  Lyman 
Beecher  of  Boston,  —  even  Luther's,  modified  by  three 
hundred  years  of  civilization  since  his  death  —  which 
was  not  fit  to  make  a  man's  blood  curdle  in  his  veins. 
Only  one  sect  has  taught  the  doctrine  of  immortality  in 
such  a  guise  that  any  man  need  wish  -it  to  be  true  — 
the  Universalists ;  and  that  sect  is  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  Christian  world.  If  the  common  notions  of  eter- 
nal life  were  true,  then  we  ought  to  call  it  Eternal 
Death ;  immortality  would  be  the  greatest  curse  God 
could  inflict  upon  mankind.  It  is  too  bad  to  be  true. 
Annihilation  would  be  better :  — 

"  Feelingly  sweet  were  stillness  after  storm, 
Though  under  covert  of  the  wormy  ground.'* 

In  the  popular  mythology,  God  is  represented  as 
turning  Adam  and  Eve  out  of  Paradise,  with  bitter 
execrations,  —  "  Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake ;  in 
sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life  ;  thorns 
also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee."  Fortu- 
nately that  part  of  the  popular  mythology  was  writ  by 
a  man  who  makes  no  mention  of  immortahty.  Prob- 
ably he  had  never  heard  of  it.  If  he  had  he  might  have 
added  that  God  knit  his  brows  at  mankind,  baring  his 
red  right  arm,  and  then  said,  "  Eat  also  of  the  tree  of 
life  and  live  forever,  and  I  will  torture  you  for  aU  eter- 
nity." The  Hebrew  writer  probably  had  not  heard  of 
immortality ;  he  did  not  add  that ;  he  left  it  for  Chris- 
tian doctors  to  do.  So  in  the  popular  theology  the  Fall 
was  the  first  misfortune  of  mankind,  and  Immortahty 
the  last.  To  die  bodily  was  looked  upon  as  the  first 
curse,  but  to  be  unable  to  die  in  the  soul  is  looked  upon 
as  the  last  curse.  Read  sermons  —  and  they  are  of  the 
commonest  —  on  the  fate  of  the  wicked  in  the  next  life, 


226  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

and  they  shall  tell  you,  almost  all  of  them,  that  the 
wicked,  the  reprobate,  the  damned,  will  call  out  for 
the  hills  to  fall  on  us,  on  the  mountains  to  cover  us; 
and  the  remorseless  hills  will  not  stir;  the  unpitying 
mountains  will  not  start  an  inch;  man  shall  ask  for 
annihilation  and  have  Hell  for  answer. 

Yet  spite  of  this  horrible  doom  prepared  for  mankind, 
as  it  is  alleged,  which  makes  immortality  a  curse  and 
the  thought  of  it  a  mildew,  —  the  doctrine  is  so  dear  to 
the  human  heart,  to  the  reflective  head  of  mankind,  that 
it  is  clung  to,  loved,  believed  in,  and  cherished  by  the 
mass  of  men  all  over  the  world.  Even  the  Churches' 
fabled  hell  cannot  frighten  mankind  out  of  their  love 
for  eternal  life,  "  This  longing  after  immortality." 

"  For  who  would  lose 


Though  full  of  pain,  this  intellectual  being, 
These  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity  ?  " 

The  doctrine  of  eternal  life  is  always  popular.  If 
you  were  to  poll  the  world  to-day  and  get  the  ayes  and 
noes  of  all  mankind,  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  out 
of  every  thousand  would  give  their  vote  for  immortality. 
Yet  few  have  ever  reasoned  about  it  much,  and  demon- 
strated their  immortality.  Most  men  think  that  they 
take  it  on  trust  from  the  mouth  of  their  priest,  or  from 
"  revelation,"  —  the  Christians  from  the  Bible,  the 
Mahometans  from  the  Koran.  But  it  is  not  so  ;  we  do 
not  take  it  on  trust  from  a  man.  Like  what  else  comes 
from  the  primitive  instincts  of  the  human  heart,  we 
take  it  on  trust  from  the  Father;  from  no  less  au- 
thority. 

I  mention  these  things  to  show  first,  how  deep  is  the 
instinct  of  immortahty  in  our  heart,  for  all  nations 
above  the  nakedness  of  the  most  savage  have  fastened 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  227 

their  hopes  on  this ;  they  have  dug  down  to  this  primi- 
tive rock,  never  very  far  from  the  surface ;  and  next  to 
show  how  strong  it  is,  which  even  the  fear  of  the  future 
eternal  torment  cannot  annihilate.  For  sixteen  or 
eighteen  hundred  years  the  Christian  Church  has 
preached  the  docrine  of  immortality  in  such  a  form  that 
it  is  only  another  name  for  the  wrath  of  God  and  eter- 
nal torment  to  the  mass  of  men ;  but  with  all  this 
preaching  it  has  not  scared  the  belief  thereof  out  of  the 
heart  of  man,  and  it  cannot. 

And  yet  dear  as  this  doctrine  is  to  the  heart  of  man- 
kind, for  many  hundred  years  you  find  powerful  men 
of  great  ability  aiming  to  destroy  the  belief  in  it. 
These  philosophers  have  had  a  bad  name  in  human 
history  because  they  denied  what  the  heart  of  man 
loved  to  believe,  what  the  analogy  of  Nature  plainly 
taught,  and  what  also  the  noblest  philosophy  proves 
as  its  very  highest  affirmation.  It  is  a  strange  thing 
that  men  who  have  preached  eternal  damnation  for  the 
vast  majority  of  mankind,  have  a  good  name  in  every 
Church,  —  St.  Augustine,  Gregory,  —  half  a  dozen  of 
that  name  ;  —  St.  Bernard,  a  mighty  preacher  of  eternal 
ruin ;  and  in  our  own  country,  Edwards,  Hopkins,  and 
Emmons,  among  the  most  venerable  names  of  our 
American  Church.  But  on  the  other  hand,  men  who 
have  declared  that  God  was  too  good  to  persecute  his 
children  beyond  the  tomb,  —  they  have  everywhere 
received  a  bad  name. 

If  a  man  denies  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  his  oath 
is  not  allowed  in  the  courts  of  Christendom.  Even  in 
Massachusetts  he  is  an  "  outlaw,"  and  can  prove 
nothing  in  a  Court  of  "Justice,"  except  by  the  testi- 
mony of  some  "  believer."     His  account-books  are  no 


228  IMMOB,TAL  LIFE. 

"  evidence  "  in  court,  his  testimony  of  no  value.  But  a 
man  who  teaches  that  the  God  of  the  Christians  is  a 
thousand  times  more  cruel  than  any  idol-deity  of  Scan- 
dinavia or  Hindostan,  who  will  "  torture  with  fire  and 
redhot  plates  of  iron,"  all  but  ten  in  the  million,  has 
his  oath  allowed  him  in  every  court ! 

But  we  ought  to  look  at  the  reason  which  has  led 
the  philosophers  to  deny  the  doctrine.  Some  of  them 
have  doubtless  been  low  and  vulgar  men,  —  as  mean  as 
their  theological  opponents,  —  and  from  lowness  and 
vulgarity  denied  what  their  lowness  and  vulgarity  hin- 
dered them  from  comprehending.  But  that  is  a  very 
small  class  amongst  philosophic  men ;  and  it  is  a  rare 
thing  to  find  a  low  and  vulgar  man  flying  in  the  face 
of  popular  opinion  for  the  sake  of  an  idea.  Such  men 
preach  the  popular  doctrine,  not  the  opposite.  But  it  is 
a  fact  of  history  that  in  old  time,  from  Epicurus  to 
Seneca,  some  of  the  ablest  heads  and  best  hearts  of 
Greece  and  Rome  sought  to  destroy  the  idea  of  immor- 
tality. This  was  the  reason :  they  saw  it  was  a  torment 
to  mankind,  that  the  popular  notion  thereof  was  too 
bad  to  be  true  ;  and  so  they  took  pains  to  break  down 
the  Heathen  mythology,  though  with  it  they  destroyed 
the  notion  of  immortal  life.  They  did  a  great  service 
to  mankind  in  ridding  us  from  this  yoke  of  fear.  The 
Pagan  philosopher  and  scoffer  was  a  "  forerunner "  of 
Jesus,  —  quite  as  much  so  as  John  the  Baptist.  Be 
assured  of  this;  —  it  is  a  great  thing  to  destroy  an 
organized  tyranny,  even  if  at  first  you  set  up  no  govern- 
ment in  its  place  ;  for  such  is  the  creative  power  of  the 
human  spirit  that,  if  it  have  a  free  chance  to  work,  it 
will  soon  raise  up  new  Romes  out  of  the  dust,  and 
leaving  the  monarchies  of  the  old  continent  will  build 
up  republics  in  the  new.     After  you  have  hewn  down 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  229 

the  forest  and  driven  off  the  catamount  and  the  wolf, 
it  is  not  a  hard  thing  to  raise  corn  and  sheep  in  the 
new  soil. 

But  soon  as  Christianity  became  established  in  the 
State,  the  old  tyranny  of  fear  got  set  up  anew;  and 
as  the  doctrine  of  immortality  appeared  in  a  more  dis- 
tinct form  and  became  more  apparent  in  the  Christian 
than  in  the  Hebrew  or  Heathen  Church,  so  this  fear  of 
future  torment  became  more  distinct  and  more  power- 
ful; yes,  it  became  absolute.  It  was  connected  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  Fall ;  with  "  foreordination  by  the 
divine  decrees,"  which  is  the  Fatalism  of  the  Christian 
Church, — the  same  thing  which  had  taken  a  form 
slightly  different  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  theologies, 
and  was  again  to  appear,  modified  a  little  further,  in 
the  Mahometan  theology ;  —  with  the  idea  of  "  total 
depravity,"  and  the  "  infinite  evil "  of  sin ;  and  in  such 
bad  company,  what  wonder  is  it  that  the  doctrine  of 
immortality  became  what  it  did  become  ?  It  was  fear 
of  God,  not  love  of  him.  It  was  fear  of  future  torment 
which  brought  down  the  knee  and  the  neck  of  Christian 
Europe  under  its  priestly  tyrants.  It  was  not  love  of 
God  which  built  the  costly  domes  of  Italy,  and  the 
cathedrals  of  the  North.  No,  it  was  fear  of  hell.  An 
atheistic  pope  wished  to  build  up  a  costly  church  in 
Rome.  He  wanted  money,  —  he  had  rack-rented  aU 
Italy,  —  and  so  he  sent  round  his  apostles,  first  to 
preach  the  wrath  of  God,  the  torments  of  the  future 
world ;  next  that  the  priesthood  had  power  to  appease 
that  wrath  and  abate  those  torments ;  then,  as  a  third 
thing,  that  they  would  do  aU  this  for  money.  Monk 
Tetzel  went  about  to  sell  his  indulgences, — pardons 
for  sins  past,  present,  and  to  come.  He  offered  to  ticket 
men  all  the  way  through  to  Heaven ;  and  they  might 

20 


230  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

take  any  quantity  of  luggage  of  sin  with  them,  by  pay- 
ing a  small  additional  fare.  He  had  a  drum  beat ;  and 
when  men  assembled  he  mounted  his  stand,  opened  his 
ticket-office  and  began  hawking  and  peddling  his  eccle- 
siastical wares.  Luther  said,  "'  I  will  make  a  hole  in 
Tetzel's  drum !  "  —  So  he  did.  «  The  pope,"  said 
Luther,  "  cannot  save  men  from  Purgatory ;  his  tickets 
will  not  be  taken  anywhere  on  the  road.  Keep  your 
money  and  renounce  your  sin ! "  The  sale  of  indul- 
gences went  down  all  at  once  ;  the  market  stopped. 

But  the  tyranny  of  fear  was  not  broken :  there  was 
only  one  mode  less  of  escaping  it.  You  could  no 
longer  buy  off  the  wrath  of  God.  There  lay  the  bot- 
tomless pit,  and  there  was  none  to  ticket  men  across. 
Other  men  undertook  to  make  a  larger  hole  in  that 
same  drum ;  to  smite  in  both  heads  of  it.  They  said, 
"  The  soul  is  not  immortal :  death  is  the.  end  of  you !  " 
These  men  labored  to  destroy  the  Christian  mythology, 
just  as  the  old  scoffers  and  philosophers  had  sought  to 
make  way  with  the  Heathen  mythology.  Did  that 
denial  satisfy  the  world  ?     Quite  far  from  it. 

The  Human  Race  is  under  great  obligation  to  these 
deniers.  These  "  atheists "  have  done  mankind  great 
service.  Epicurus,  Pyrrho,  Lucretius,  Bruno,  Voltaire, 
Paine,  Hume,  are  among  the  benefactors  of  the  race. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  destroy  a  superstition  which  rides 
men  as  a  nightmare.  But  some  of  them  were  among 
the  most  miserable  of  all  this  earth's  martyrs  that  I  have 
ever  read  of.  There  they  sat,  surrounded  by  jollity  and 
elegance,  wine  and  scarlet  women,  the  victims  of  cir- 
cumstances which  they  could  not  control.  Their  fate 
was  far  more  pitiful  than  that  of  St.  Sebastian  or  St. 
Catharine.  Who  would  not  rather  be  shot  through  and 
through  with  arrows,  or  broken  for  once  on  a  wheel  of 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  231 

iron  and  wood,  than  be  shot  at  with  doubts  of  immor- 
tality and  broken  constantly  with  dread  of  annihilation  ? 
Believing  men  who  build  up  a  new  religion  are  always 
harshly  treated,  scourged  in  the  market,  beaten,  let  down 
out  of  windows  in  the  wall  of  the  city,  shipwrecked, 
persecuted,  leaving  their  heads  in  a  charger,  or  their 
bodies  on  a  cross.  They  have  our  sympathy,  and  de- 
serve it,  —  brave  souls  in  hardy  iron  flesh.  But  the  un- 
believing men  who  broke  down  the  old  religions,  and 
saw  no  other  light  in  the  dusky  ruin  they  made,  —  they 
are  sadder  martyrs  in  the  world's  great  story !  Drop  a 
tear  then  on  the  grave  of  Voltaire,  on  the  tomb  of  Pom- 
ponatius,  and  on  the  fires  which  consumed  Jordano 
Bruno.  You  and  I  are  made  free  by  their  sufferings ; 
by  their  sorrows  are  our  joys  made  more  certain.  In  a 
better  age  Voltaire  might  have  been  as  devout  and  re- 
ligious as  Gerson  or  Luther,  and  Bruno  have  been 
burned  not  as  a  heretic,  but  as  a  Christian. 

The  work  of  theological  destruction  is  not  yet  over ; 
far  enough  from  it.  The  popular  mythology  must  go 
the  same  way  with  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  mythol- 
ogy, and  other  martyrs  are  doubtless  demanded  for  that. 
No  Emperor  Julian,  apostatizing  from  the  progress  of 
mankind,  can  save  what  is  false,  or  destroy  the  true. 

The  leading  philosophers  of  Europe  seem  to  have 
small  faith  in  immortality ;  some  positively  deny  it ;  a 
few  mock  at  it.  Many  of  the  enlightened  Germans, 
whom  oppression  drives  to  America,  deny  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  some  openly  scoff  at  the  hope  of  eter- 
nal life ;  and  say  all  belief  therein  is  a  misfortune,  for  it 
clouds  over  men's  happiness  now  with  fear  of  future 
torment,  hinders  their  progress,  and  makes  them  believe 
xhat  Virtue  and  Justice  are  not  good  for  their  own  sake, 
but  only  as  means  to  another   end.     There  is  a  good 


232  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

deal  of  truth  in  their  objections  no  doubt ;  but  they  all 
apply  only  to  a  false  idea  of  immortality  and  a  wrong 
use  of  it ;  not  at  all  against  the  true  doctrine  itself.  It 
seems  to  me  these  philosophers  wholly  overlook  the 
deep  desire  of  mankind  for  personal  immortality  ;  —  the 
natural  belief  which  is  so  general  that  it  is  universal,  ex- 
cept in  those  who  have  cultivated  their  intellect  at  the 
expense  of  the  conscience,  the  affections,  or  the  soul ;  or 
in  whom,  in  early  life,  some  prejudice  has  hindered  the 
natural  instincts  of  mankind.  They  forget  what  a  pow- 
erful motive  to  good  it  is,  what  a  present  enjoyment  it 
affords  to  the  human  race  ;  and  their  denial,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  most  unphilosophic.  And  yet  they  are  doing  the 
same  service  now  that  Zeno  and  Lucretius  and  Lucian 
did  for  Christianity.  They  are  the  forerunners  of  some 
better  "  dispensation  "  that  is  to  come. 

I  know  some  men  fear  that  these  bold  deniers  of  im- 
mortal life  will  destroy  the  belief  of  mankind  therein.  I 
have  no  fear  of  that.  Spite  of  the  Catholic  Church,  for 
sixteen  hundred  years  preaching  immortality  as  a  curse, 
and  the  Protestant  Church  for  three  hundred  years  pro- 
claiming it  as  a  mildew  and  blight,  —  men  have  stiU 
entertained  the  belief;  and  if  aU  the  learned  clergy  of 
the  Protestant  world,  if  all  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the 
dark  ages,  could  not  make  any  considerable  number  of 
men  doubt  of  immortality,  I  do  not  believe  that  a  hand- 
ful of  philosophers  speaking  in  the  name  of  philosophy 
or  mockery,  can  ever  put  down  that  which  has  held 
mankind  so  strongly  for  two  or  three  thousand  years. 
Immortality  has  kept  the  field  against  Augustine  and 
Jerome,  the  Basils,  the  Gregories,  and  Bernard;  has 
held  its  own  spite  of  Aquinas  and  Calvin  and  Edwards 
and  Hopkins  and  Emmons,  and  I  think  it  can  laugh  at 
Strauss  and  Comte  and  Feuerbach.     Has  it  not  in  its 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  233 

time  heard  devils  roar,  and  yet  held  its  own  against  the 
HeU  of  the  Church  ?  Do  you  think,  then,  it  has  any 
thing  to  fear  from  the  Earth  of  the  material  philosophers  ? 


We  know  little  of  the  next  life ;  nothing  of  the  de- 
tails thereof.  In  aU  the  accounts  of  the  future  world 
which  are  commonly  thought  by  Christians  and  Ma- 
hometans to  come  from  miraculous  revelation,  you  see 
how  poor  is  the  invention  of  mankind  :  the  basis  of  the 
future  heaven  is  always  human,  earthly.  The  Mahom- 
etan heaven  is  only  what  the  Mahometan  wishes  to 
make  earth,  a  paradise  of  the  senses ;  all  the  passions, 
littleness,  and  vulgarity  of  the  Mussulman  are  carried 
thither  and  repeated  on  a  great  scale.  It  was  so  in  the 
Greek  heaven ;  in  the  heaven  of  the  ancient  Germans. 
The  Book  of  Revelation  in  our  Bible  is  the  work  of 
some  bigoted  Jew,  apparently  not  at  all  improved  by 
the  Christianity  of  his  time  ;  and  its  heaven  is  only  a 
New  Jerusalem,  a  most  uncomfortable  place  for  any- 
body but  male  and  unmarried  Jews.  With  the  Puri- 
tans, Heaven  was  a  New  Plymouth  or  a  New  Boston, 
where  the  "  Elect "  had  the  monopoly  which  they 
wanted  to  get  in  the  old  Plymouth  or  old  Boston,  but 
could  not  quite  accomplish ;  where  all  the  time  was 
Sunday,  and  the  chief  business  was  going  to  meeting ; 
the  chief  joy  was  psalm-singing  and  listening  to  Cal- 
vinistic  explanations  of  the  Scripture,  now  and  then  de- 
lighting their  eyes  with  the  sight  of  their  former  oppo- 
nents writhing  in  the  pains  of  damnation.  It  was  the 
Puritans'  earthly  life,  idealized  a  little,  and  made  eter- 
nal; they  hoped  to  see  their  enemy  tortured  in  hell 
whom  they  could  not  whip  at  the  tail  of  a  cart  on  earth. 
The  ancient  ghosts,  who  used  to  be  seen,  and  the  mod- 

20* 


234  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

ern  ghosts,  who  are  now  only  heard,  in  their  "  News 
from  Heaven  "  only  reveal  things  taken  from  our  daily 
life.  The  theological  details  of  the  future  life  are 
chiefly  imaginary,  and  drawn  from  our  daily  intercourse 
with  common  things. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  we  may  for  a  certainty 
know  this,  —  that  man  is  immortal ;  that  I  consider  as 
fixed  as  the  proposition  that  one  and  one  make  two. 
Then  that  God  is  infinitely  perfect,  a  perfect  Cause  and 
a  perfect  Providence ;  that  I  consider  equally  certain  as 
that  one  and  one  make  two.  Of  course  his  infinite 
care  must  extend  over  the  whole  existence  of  mankind ; 
must  make  the  future  life  an  infinite  blessing  for  man- 
kind on  the  whole,  an  infinite  blessing  for  every  human 
soul.  This  follows  from  what  has  already  been  said 
of  the  nature  of  God ;  for  the  infinite  God  must  create 
his  work  from  perfect  motives  and  for  a  perfect  purpose, 
form  it  of  perfect  material  and  provide  it  with  perfect 
means  to  attain  the  perfect  end  he  has  proposed.  Ac- 
cordingly, his  scheme  of  things  must  be  so  contrived 
as  at  last  to  achieve  perfect  welfare  for  the  whole  of 
mankind,  and  for  each  particular  person. 

The  Form  of  the  future  life  we  know  nothing  of — 
whether  man  shall  have  a  body  or  no  body ;  and  if  a 
body,  what  shape  of  body;  whether  it  shall  resemble 
the  human  shape  or  any  other  shape  that  we  can  im- 
agine. Man  can  know  nothing  of  that ;  no  more  than 
the  unborn  babe  can  dream  of  the  exploits  which  it 
shall  perform  in  after  years,  in  science,  art,  and  daily 
life. 

I  am  glad  that  we  do  not  and  cannot  know  this,  I  do 
not  wish  to  know;  and  if  it  were  possible  for  me  to 
receive  a  "  miraculous "  knowledge  of  what  should 
take  place  the  other  side  of  the  grave,  I  would  say  to 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  235 

the  being  who  brought  the  tidings,  "  Stand  back !  I  do 
not  wish  to  know."  Time  is  the  best  fortune-teller. 
What  God  has  put  out  of  man's  power  to  reach,  it  is 
not  man's  need  to  have,  and  it  is  not  his  wisdom  to 
grasp  after. 

The  notion  of  eternal  misery,  of  punishment  for  the 
sake  of  punishment,  the  doctrine  that  God  exploiters 
the  human  race  and  that  men  are  "  tortured  for  the  glory 
of  God," — that  notion  deserves  all  the  scorn,  all  the  hate, 
all  the  ribaldry,  all  the  mockery  which  it  ever  met  with 
from  Lucian  and  Lucretius,  from  Pomponatius  and  Vol- 
taire, from  Thomas  Paine  and  Richter  and  Feuerbach : 
their  hammer  is  not  at  all  too  heavy  for  their  hard 
work. 

But  the  idea  of  immortality  as  it  belongs  to  the 
Absolute  Religion,  consistent  with  the  Infinite  Perfec- 
tion of  God,  the  philosopher  need  not  hate  that ;  for  the 
belief  therein  is  true  to  the  spontaneous  consciousness 
of  human  nature,  to  the  reflective  consciousness  of  phi- 
losophy, and  it  is  of  the  greatest  value  to  man  as  a  hope, 
encouragement,  and  reward.  Let  me  be  sure  of  two 
things,  —  first,  of  Thine  Infinite  Perfection,  O  Father 
in  Heaven !  then  of  my  own  Immortafity,  —  and  I  am 
safe,  I  fear  nothing ;  I  am  not  a  transient  bubble  on 
the  sea  of  Time,  I  shall  outlast  the  "  everlasting  hills," 
I  am  immortal  as  the  monads  of  matter,  immortal  as 
its  laws !  I  may  rely  on  myself,  respect  myself,  feel 
within  me  the  yearnings  after  immortality,  and  I  know 
there  is  an  Infinite  Heart  which  yearns  infinitely  for 
me  and  will  take  me  to  itself  and  bless  me  at  the  last. 

Then  I  can  rely  on  something  better  than  I  see  with 
my  eyes  —  on  the  Ideal  Excellence  which  I  think  in  my 
heart.  I  can  make  a  sacrifice  for  it;  I  can  postpone 
my  Now  for  an  immortal  Then ;  I  can  labor  for  noble 


236  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

things  which  it  will  take  a  thousand  years  to  accom- 
plish. Things  about  me  may  fail,  the  mountain  may 
fall  and  come  to  nought  and  the  rock  be  removed  out 
of  its  place,  be  exhaled  a  vapor  to  the  sky  —  I  shall  not 
fail.     I  see 

"  The  Soul  is  builded  far  from  accident : 
It  suffers  not  in  smiling  pomps,  nor  falls 
Under  the  brow  of  thralling  discontent ; 
It  fears  not  Policy,  —  that  heretic 
That  works  on  leases  of  short-numbered  hours, 
But  all  alone  stands  hugely  politic." 

If  to-morrow  I  am  to  perish  utterly,  then  I  shall  only 
take  counsel  for  to-day,  and  ask  for  qualities  which  last 
no  longer.  My  fathers  will  be  to  me  only  as  the  ground 
out  of  which  my  bread-corn  is  grown ;  dead,  they  are 
like  the  rotten  mould  of  earth,  their  memory  of  small 
concern  to  me.  Posterity,  —  I  shall  care  nothing  for 
the  future  generations  of  mankind.  I  am  one  atom  in 
the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  care  nothing  for  the  roots  be- 
low, or  the  branch  above.  I  shall  sow  such  seed  as  will 
bear  harvest  at  once.  I  shall  know  no  Higher  Law : 
Passion  enacts  my  statutes  to-day;  to-morrow  Ambi- 
tion revises  the  statutes,  and  these  are  my  sole  legisla- 
tors. Morality  will  vanish.  Expediency  take  its  place. 
Heroism  will  be  gone,  and  instead  of  it  there  will  be 
the  brute  valor  of  the  he-wolf,  the  brute  cunning  of  the 
she-fox,  the  rapacity  of  the  vulture,  and  the  headlong 
daring  of  the  wild  bull; — but  the  cool,  calm  courage 
which,  for  truth's  sake,  and  for  love's  sake,  looks  death 
firmly  in  the  face  and  then  wheels  into  line  ready 
to  be  slain,  that  will  be  a  thing  no  longer  heard  of. 
Affection  will  be  a  momentary  delight  in  other  men. 
The   friendship   which   lays   down   its   life   for   father, 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  237 

mother,  wife,  or  child,  for  dear  ones  tenderly  beloved, 
which  sucks  the  poison  from  their  wounds,  —  the  phi- 
lanthropy which  toils  and  provides  for  the  friendless, 
the  loveless,  the  unlovely,  and  the  wicked,  —  that  will 
only  be  a  story  of  old  time,  to  be  laughed  at  as  men 
laugh  at  the  tale  of  the  Grecian  boy  who  loved  the 
New  Moon  as  his  heavenly  bride. 

But  if  I  know  that  I  am  to  live  forever,  and  when 
yonder  sun  has  seen  the  whole  host  of  heaven  circle 
about  the  centre  of  the  universe  a  million  million  times, 
that  I  still  live  on,  making  a  greater  progress  in  every 
forty  years  tljan  what  I  have  grown  to  since  first  I  left 
my  mother's  arms ;  —  if  I  know  that  Mankind  will  still 
survive  with  ever-greatening  faculties  in  some  other  life, 
directed  by  the  same  Infinite  Mind  and  Conscience,  and 
Heart  and  Soul  that  made  us  first,  and  guides  us  in  our 
heavenward  march ;  if  I  know  that  each  beggar  in  the 
street,  that  every  culprit  in  the  jail,  or  out  of  it,  or  haling 
men  thither,  has  an  immortal  soul,  and  will  go  on 
greatening  and  beautifying  more  and  more,  —  then  I 
shall  take  the  highest  qualities  which  I  know,  or  feel, 
and  work  with  them ;  and  I  shaU  feel  that  my  person- 
ality is  one  of  the  permanent  forces  of  the  universe, 
and  shall  toil  with  conscious  dignity  and  loving  awe. 
I  shall  respect  myself,  and  so  respect  each  brother 
man. 

In  a  hostile  country  the  enemy  builds  his  house  of 
tent-poles  and  cloth,  to  last  a  single  night ;  pillages  the 
neighborhood,  hews  down  the  tree  to  eat  its  half-ripe 
fruit,  careless  of  the  toil  which  planted  and  the  hope 
that  waits  therefor ;  and  to-morrow  he  marches  away, 
his  city  of  a  night  reduced  to  tent-poles  and  canvas, 
packed  up  in  his  cart :  a  bit  of  vari-colored  bunting  on 
a  stick,  is  the  symbol  of  his  nomadic  havoc.     But  the 


238  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

resident  fanner  carefully  gathers  and  providentially 
plants  the  seed,  and  painstakingly  rears  up  the  tree, 
prunes  it,  grafts  it,  waits  his  score  of  years,  and  then, 
apple  by  apple,  he  gathers  its  fruit,  the  soft  for  present 
use,  the  sound  for  future  store  ;  and  his  broad  barn  of 
limestone,  his  house  of  brick,  and  his  marble  church, — 
these  are  the  symbols  of  the  resident.  So,  under  the 
stimulus  of  immortality,  we  shall  cultivate  those  plants 
of  the  soul  which  take  deep  root,  which  require  years, 
even  ages,  to  grow,  and  slowly  bear  their  fruit,  a  bless- 
ing for  generations  yet  to  come. 

If  I  know  that  I  am  to  live  forever,  in  the  heat  of 
sensual  passion,  I  shall  not  set  my  heart  on  lust  and 
mere  bodily  delight ;  I  know  something  more  delight- 
ful. In  the  period  of  ambition,  I  shall  not  set  my  heart 
on  gold  only,  or  the  praise  of  men ;  I  know  what  is 
richer,  I  know  a  fame  better  than  fame.  I  shall  remem- 
ber that  I  am  more  than  passion's  slave,  or  the  mad- 
man of  ambition  ;  I  shall  give  both  their  due,  —  pas- 
sion its  own,  and  ambition  what  belongs  thereto. 
Riches  and  honor,  —  I  shall  give  them  both  their 
own.  Then  I  shall  go  deeper  down,  and  bring  to 
light  the  brighter  diamonds  which  I  quarry  in  the  hu- 
man mine. 

Consciousness  of  immortality  will  not  lead  to  con- 
tempt of  this  life,  to  weariness  of  it,  to  neglect  of  its 
duties.  Looking  up,  I  shall  wish  to  set  my  foot  on 
every  round  of  the  human  ladder.  In  the  dark  places 
of  the  earth  the  candle  of  the  Infinite  will  shine  on  the 
habitations  of  cruelty ;  and  I  shall  see  the  way  to  stave 
them  to  the  ground,  and  in  their  place  build  up  fair- 
faced  dwellings  for  the  sons  of  men. 

To  the  mortal  eye  this  is  a  sad  world.     What  a  his- 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  239 

tory  it  is  before  me,  —  looking  out  of  these  four  or  five 
thousand  eyes  !  What  daydreams  of  yours  and  mine 
have  broke  into  nothing !  What  toils  unrequited,  what 
sorrows  which  the  world  did  not  know,  —  all  laid  away 
in  our  consciousness,  stratum  over  stratum,  deposited 
under  tranquil  or  troubled  seas ! 

Look  at  the  world  ;  —  at  Boston,  with  all  the  sorrow 
which  festers  in  her  heart ;  at  happy  America,  with  her 
dreadful  evils ;  at  Europe,  with  her  France,  so  high, 
and  then  so  low ;  with  her  Germany,  full  of  contem- 
plation, —  and  a  chain  on  her  neck ;  with  Italy  and 
Spain  ground  under  a  tyrant's  foot ;  look  at  Asia, 
"  the  cradle  of  the  human  race,"  the  cradle  turned  over 
and  the  child  spilled  out ;  —  at  Africa,  the  nursery  of 
the  slaves  of  the  world  ;  —  at  the  Islands  of  the  Sea ;  — 
and  consider  that  man  is  only  mortal,  and  what  a  spec- 
tacle it  is !  I  should  die  outright  at  the  thought  of 
that !  But  as  I  know  that  I  shall  live  forever,  and  that 
the  Infinite  God  loves  you  and  me,  each  man  that  waUvS 
the  ground,  —  I  can  look  on  these  evils  of  the  world, 
on  America,  Europe,  with  her  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Spain ;  —  I  can  look  on  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  Islands 
of  the  Sea  ;  —  and  it  is  all  only  the  hour  before  sunrise, 
the  light  is  coming ;  yes,  I  am  also  to  light  a  little  torch 
to  illuminate  the  darkness,  while  it  lasts,  and  help  until 
the  dayspring  come. 

How  heavy  are  the  griefs  of  personal  mortal  life! 
Health  decays  into  sickness,  hope  into  disappointment ; 
death  draws  near  to  our  little  troop  of  pilgrims,  and 
when  we  pitch  our  tent  he  takes  away  some  beloved 
head,  —  a  baby  now,  then  an  old  man,  then  a  father  or 
a  mother,  a  husband  or  a  wife,  a  relative  or  a  friend,  — 
and  at  last  we  sit  there,  near  the  end  of  our  pilgrim- 
age, solitary,  over  our  night  fire,  a  few  embers  only  left, 


240  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

and  they  burning  low,  while  the  enemy  draws  near 
to  quench  them,  then  clutches  us  and  we  vanish  also 
into  night. 

"  Alas  for  love,  if  this  were  all, 
And  nought  beyond  the  earth  !  " 

The  Atheist  sits  down  beside  the  coffin  of  his  only 
child  —  a  rose-bud  daughter  whose  heart  death  slowly 
eat  away ;  the  pale  lihes  of  the  valley  which  droop  with 
fragrance  above  that  lifeless  heart,  are  flowers  of  mock- 
ery to  him ;  their  beauty  is  a  cheat.  They  give  not 
back  his  child  for  whom  the  sepulchral  monster  opens 
its  remorseless  jaws.  The  hopeless  father  looks  down 
on  the  face  of  his  girl,  silent,  not  sleeping,  cold,  dead. 
The  "  effacing  fingers  "  have  put  out  the  eye,  yet  mar- 
ble beauty  still  lingers  there,  and  love,  a  father's  love, 
continually  haunts  the  disenchanted  house.  Atheism 
cannot  speed  it  away ;  affection  has  its  law,  which  no 
impiety  of  thought  annuls.  He  looks  beyond,  —  the 
poor  sad  man, — it  is  only  solid  darkness  he  stares  upon. 
No  rainbow  beautifies  that  cloud ;  there  is  thunder  in 
it,  not  light.  Night  is  behind  —  without  a  star.  His 
dear  one  has  vanished,  her  light  put  out  by  thunderous 
death,  not  a  sparldet  left.  There  is  no  daughter  for 
him  —  but  alas,  he  is  a  father  stiU ;  yet  no  father  to  her. 
For  her  whose  life  the  blameless  baby  took,  long  years 
gone  by,  there  is  no  mortal  husband,  no  immortal 
mother.  Child  and  mother  are  equal  now;  each  is 
nothing,  both  nothing.  "  I  also  shall  soon  vanish,"  ex- 
claims the  man,  "  blotted  out  by  darkness,  and  become 
nothing  —  my  bubble  broke,  my  fife  all  gone,  with  its 
bitter  tears  for  the  child  and  the  mother  who  bore  her, 
its  bridal  and  birthday  joys,  which  glittered  a  moment 
—  how  bright  they  were,  then  slipped  away,  —  my  sor- 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  241 

rows  all  unrequited,  my  hopes  a  cruel  cheat.  Ah  me ! 
the  stars  slowly  gathering  into  one  flock,  are  a  sorry 
sight — each  a  sphere  tenanted  perhaps  by  the  same 
bubbles,  the  same  cheats,  the  same  despair —  for  it  is  a 
here  with  no  Hereafter,  a  body  with  no  Soul,  a  world 
without  a  God  !  " 

Hard  by  in  the  same  village,  the  selfsame  night,  a 
thoughtful  man,  born,  baptized,  and  bred  a  theological 
Christian,  full  of  faith  in  the  popular  mythology  of  the 
churches,  accepting  its  grimmest  ghastliness,  sits  down 
by  the  bedside  of  his  prodigal  son,  his  only  child,  — 
life's  substance  squandered  on  harlots,  wasted  in  riot- 
ous living.  Death  knocks  at  the  profligate's  oft  bat- 
tered door  :  no  syi'en  shakes  the  wanton  windows  now. 
The  last  hour  of  the  impenitent  has  come.  The  father 
looks  on  that  face  so  like  its  mortal  mother  once,  now 
stained  by  riot,  and  scarred  by  lust,  the  mother's  image 
broke  and  crushed :  so  in  the  sack  of  a  city,  a  statue 
of  Mary  is  whelmed  over  a  church  portal,  and  thrown 
down,  and  the  fragments  of  shattered  loveliness  are 
crunched  to  dust  beneath  the  lumbering  cannon  wheels 
and  vulgar  drays,  while  from  the  street  the  artist  eyes 
the  shards  of  beauty  wrought  from  his  dreams  and 
prayers.  The  father  feels  the  breath  of  the  vampyre  of 
the  tomb  as  it  slowly  numbs  the  youthful  limbs, — joint 
by  joint,  finger  by  finger,  hand  by  hand :  he  sees  the 
mist  cloud  over  the  inanimate  and  soulless  eye.  Life 
slowly  ripples  out  from  that  once  manly  heart.  Tele- 
scopic memory  sweeps  the  horizon  of  the  father's  con- 
sciousness. He  remembers  the  cradle,  —  bought  with 
such  triumph  ;  the  birth-night ;  the  little  garments  pre- 
viously made  ready  for  the  expected  guest ;  the  prayer 
of  gratitude  for  the  given  and  the  spared  when  first  he 
saw  his  first-born  son ;  he  recalls  the  day  of  his  mar- 

21 


242  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

riage,  when  he  stood  on  the  world's  top  and  Heaven 
gave  him  that  angel  —  it  seemed  so  then  —  to  be  loved, 
a  real  angel  now,  long  since  gone  home  to  Heaven,  her 
heart  broken  by  the  son's  precocious  waywardness. 
The  father  watches  the  ebb  of  mortal  life,  it  is  the  flood 
of  hell,  bitter,  remorseless,  endless  hell ;  his  son  sinks 
into  damnation — joint  by  joint,  and  limb  by  limb. 
Now  he  has  sunk  all  over !  The  mortal  father  turns  to 
religion  for  comfort.  Theology  tells  him  of  the  fire  that 
is  never  quenched,  of  the  worm  which  dieth  not,  the  tor- 
ments of  his  child  —  the  smoke  ascending  up  forever 
and  ever,  and  bidding  him  be  glad  at  the  eternal  an- 
guish of  his  only  son.  His  Bible  becomes  a  torment ; 
—  in  the  "  many  mansions  "  of  its  Heaven  he  knows 
none  for  the  impenitent  prodigal  whom  Death  drives 
from  husks  and  swine.  He  looks  up  after  God ;  a  grisly 
King  makes  the  earth  tremble  at  his  frown  —  angry 
with  the  wicked  every  day,  and  keeping  anger  forever  ; 
there  is  no  Father.  He  turns  to  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows 
and  acquainted  with  grief,"  asking  "  will  not  Mary's 
Son  help  me  in  peril  for  mine  ?  for  a  sword  pierces 
through  my  own  soul  also."  But  the  Crucified  thun- 
ders "  Depart  from  me  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels ; "  and  all  the  host 
of  theological  "  Christians  "  respond  —  "  He  shall  go 
into  everlasting  punishment !  Amen !  "  For  him  there 
is  no  Christ  —  nor  never  shall  be  one.  Religion  is  a 
torment,  immortality  a  Curse,  and  God  a  Devil !  "  Is 
there  no  Mother  for  my  son  ?  "  he  cries.  The  finger 
of  Theology,  hiding  the  morning  star,  points  down  to 
Hell,  and  the  voice  of  Night  with  cold  breath  whispers 
"  Forever." 

At   the   grave   the   "  Atheist "    and   the   theological 
"  Christian "  look  each  other  in  the  face ;  one  has  laid 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  243 

away  his  daughter  for  annihilation  —  he  is  the  father 
of  nothing ;  the  other  has  buried  his  son  in  eternal  tor- 
ment, the  father  of  a  devil's  victim,  of  a  soul  forever 
damned  !  What  comfort  has  the  one  from  Nothing,  the 
other  from  Hell  ?  Human  Nature  tells  both,  "  it  is  a 
lie.  Atheism  is  here  a  lie;  the  popular  theology  is 
there  another  he." 

Yes,  it  is  a  lie.  Eternal  morning  follows  the  night ; 
a  rainbow  scarfs  the  shoulders  of  every  cloud  weeping 
its  rain  away  to  become  flowers  on  land  and  pearls  at 
sea ;  Life  rises  out  of  the  grave,  the  Soul  cannot  be 
held  by  festering  flesh.  Absolute  ReHgion  puts  this 
ghastly  theology  to  everlasting  rest ;  the  Infinite  Mother 
will  mercifully  chasten,  heal,  and  bless  even  the  prodigal 
whom  death  surprised  impenitent ;  Love  shall  cast  out 
fear. 

But  conscious  of  the  infinite  perfection  of  God,  with 
the  consciousness  of  immortality  in  my  heart,  all  this 
time  I  smile  through  my  tears,  as  Death  conveys  in  his 
arms,  one  by  one,  the  dear  ones  from  my  side.  I  see 
them  go  up  like  fabled  Elijah  in  his  car  of  flame.  I 
see  thefr  track  of  light  across  the  sky,  and  I  am  con- 
tented ;  I  am  glad ;  I  also  shall  presently  journey  in 
the  same  chariot  of  fire,  and  sit  down  again  beside  the 
dear  ones  who  have  gone  before  ;  — 

"  Nightly  I  pitch  my  moving  tent 
A  day's  march  nearer  home."  — 

I  smile  on  it  all,  and  am  a  conqueror  over  Death. 


My  friends,  I  look  at  things  as  they  are,  at  least  strive 
to  do  so,  and  if  I  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  man 


244  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

was  mortal  only,  I  should  proclaim  my  conscientious 
conclusion,  strongly,  and  clearly,  and  right  out.  If  I 
thought  in  my  heart  that  there  was  no  God,  why,  then 
I  should  proclaim  that  odious  conviction.  Nay,  if  I 
believed  in  the  God  of  the  popular  theology,  the  God 
who  retails  agony  and  damns  babies,  paving  his 
spacious  heU  with  "  skulls  of  infants  not  a  span 
long,"  —  that  he  made  religion  a  torment,  immortality 
a  curse,  and  was  himself  a  devil,  why  I  should  tell  that 
too,  —  and  would  never  hold  back  from  mortal  men 
what  I  thought  Truth,  howsoever  much  it  might  tear 
my  own  heart  to  get  it,  or  my  lip  to  proclaim  it.  But, 
looking  with  what  philosophy  I  have,  with  what  nature 
God  has  given  me,  I  come  to  the  other  conclusion,  and 
wish  only  that  I  had  poetic  eloquence  to  set  it  forth  till 
it  went  into  every  man's  heart,  and  drove  fear  out  there- 
from, and  planted  everlasting  life  therein. 

I  see  not  how  any  man  can  be  content  with  blank 
annihilation,  to  have  no  consciousness  of  immortality, 
no  consciousness  of  God.  —  Chance !  Fate !  Annihila- 
tion! 

"  Are  these  the  pompous  tidings  ye  proclaim, 
Lights  of  the  world,  and  demi-gods  of  fame  ? 
Is  this  your  triumph  —  this  your  proud  applause, 
Children  of  Truth,  and  champions  of  her  cause  ? 
For  this  hath  Science  searched,  on  weary  wing. 
By  shore  and  sea  —  each  mute  and  living  thing  ? 
Launched  with  Iberia's  pilot  from  the  steep, 
To  worlds  unknown,  and  isles  beyond  the  deep  ; 
Or  round  the  cope  her  living  chariot  driven, 
And  wheeled  in  triumph  through  the  signs  of  heaven  ? 
Oh  !  star-eyed  Science,  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair  ?  — 
Then  bind  the  palm,  thy  sage's  brow  to  suit 
Of  blasted  leaf  and  death-distilling  fruit ! " 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  245 

"  What  is  the  bigot's  torch,  the  tyrant's  chain  ? 
I  smile  on  Death,  if  heavenward  Hope  remain ! 
But  if  the  warring  winds  of  Nature's  strife 
Be  all  the  faithless  charter  of  my  life ; 
If  Chance  awaked,  —  inexorable  power !  — 
This  frail  and  feverish  being  of  an  hour  ; 
Doomed  o'er  the  world's  precarious  scene  to  sweep, 
Swift  as  the  tempest  travels  on  the  deep  ; 
To  know  Delight  but  by  her  parting  smile, 
And  toil,  and  wish,  and  weep,  a  little  while ;  — 
Then  melt,  ye  elements,  that  formed  in  vain 
This  troubled  pulse  and  visionary  brain  ! 
Fade,  ye  wild  flowers,  memorials  of  my  doom  ! 
And  sink,  ye  stars,  that  light  me  to  the  tomb  !  " 

But  with  the  consciousness  of  immortality,  with  a 
certain  knowledge  of  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  God, 
the  perfect  Cause,  the  perfect  Providence,  I  can  do  all 
things :  no  doom  is  hopeless ;  disaster  is  the  threshold 
of  delight. 

"  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee  ! 
E'en  though  it  be  a  cross 
That  raiseth  me, 
Still  all  my  song  shall  be,  — 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee  !  " 


21 


SERMOJf  VIII. 

OF    PROVIDENCE    IN    GENERAL. 


(247) 


GENESIS  XXII.  8. 

GOD     WILL    PROVIDK. 
(248) 


VIII. 

A   SERMON    OF   PROVIDENCE. 


In  a  previous  sermon  I  have  already  spoken  of  the 
Infinite  God  as  Cause,  and  as  Providence.  But  the 
constant  Relation  of  God  to  the  world  which  He 
creates  and  animates,  is  a  theme  too  important  to  be 
left  with  the  merely  general  treatment  I  have  bestowed 
upon  it.  Atheism  and  the  Popular  Theology  are  both 
so  unphilosophical  in  their  Theory  of  the  Universe  ;  the 
function  ascribed  to  finite  Chance,  the  Supreme  of  the 
Atheist,  in  the  one  case,  and  to  the  Finite  God,  the 
Supreme  of  the  theologian,  in  the  other,  is  so  at 
variance  with  the  primitive  spiritual  instincts  of  human 
nature,  and  so  unsatisfactory  to  the  enlightened  con- 
sciousness of  cultivated  and  religious  men,  that  the 
subject  demands  a  distinct  and  detailed  investigation 
by  itself.  It  wiU  require  three  sermons:  —  the  first 
going  over  the  matter  very  much  at  large  and  treating 
of  Providence  in  its  universal  forms,  the  others  relating 
to  the  application  thereof  to  the  various  Phenomena  of 
Evil — to  Pain  and  Sin.  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  repeat 
the  same  thoughts  and  even  the  same  forms  of  expres- 
sion, previously  made  use  of  in  these  sermons.  I  do 
this  purposely,  both  to  avoid  the  needless  multiplication 

(249) 


250  PROVIDENCE. 

of  terms,  and  the  better  to  connect  this  whole  series  of 
discourses  together. 


The  notion  that  God  continually  watches  over  the 
world  and  all  of  its  contents  is  one  very  dear  to  man- 
kind. It  appears  in  all  forms  of  conscious  religion. 
The  worshipper  of  a  fetiche  regards  his  bit  of  wood,  or 
amulet,  as  a  special  Providence  working  magically  and 
exceptionally  for  his  good  alone.  Poljrtheism  is  only 
the  splitting  up  of  the  idea  of  God  into  a  multitude  of 
special  Providences  —  each  one  a  sliver  of  deity.  Thus 
man  has 

"  Parcelled  out  tlie  glorious  name." 

The  Catholic  invokes  his  Patron  Saint,  who  is  only 
a  rude  symbol  and  mind-mark  of  that  Providence  which 
is  always  at  hand.  Pantheism  puts  a  Providence  in 
every  blade  of  grass,  in  each  atom  of  matter.  The^ 
Epicureans  of  old  time  denied  the  Providence  of  God 
and  dreamed  of  lazy  deities  all  heedless  of  the  Uni- 
verse. But  their  theory  is  eminently  exceptional  in  the 
theological  world,  yet  performing  a  service  and  correct- 
ing the  extravagance  of  men  who  run  too  far,  in  devout 
exaggeration  attributing  all  to  God's  act. 

In  virtue  of  the  functions  of  Providence  ascribed  to 
God,  he  is  called  by  various  names  :  Lord,  or  King, 
means  providential  Master  ruling  the  world  and  ex- 
ploitering  its  inhabitants  for  his  good,  not  theirs.  That 
is  the  favorite  Old  Testament  notion  and  title  of  God  : 
he  is  King,  men  are  subjects,  or  even  slaves.  Yet  other 
names  therein  appear,  for  the  Old  Testament  is  not 
unitary.  In  the  New  Testament,  from  his  providential 
function    God  is   often   called   Father,   indicating  the 


PROVIDENCE.  251 

affection  which  controls  his  power:  he  is  not  merely 
King  over  subjects,  and  Lord  over  slaves,  but  a  Father 
who  rules  his  children  for  their  good,  restrains  that  he 
may  develop,  and  seemingly  hinders  that  he  may  really 
help.  Hence  in  the  Old  Testament,  slaves  are  bid  to 
fear  God ;  in  the  New  Testament,  children  are  told  to 
love  him.  However,  the  New  Testament  is  not  more 
unitary  in  this  respect  than  the  Old,  and  the  cruel  God 
appears  often  in  the  Gospels,  the  Epistles,  and  the 
Apocalypse,  not  a  Father  but  only  a  Lord  and  King, 
exploitering  a  portion  of  the  human  race  with  merciless 
rapacity. 

A  King  is  bound  politically  to  provide  for  his  sub- 
jects, inasmuch  as  he  is  king ;  political  providence  is  the 
royal  function.  A  father  is  affectionally  and  paternally 
bound  to  provide  for  his  children,  inasmuch  as  he  is 
father;  afFectional  providence  is  the  paternal  function. 
But  as  the  father,  or  the  king,  is  limited  in  his  powers, 
so  the  paternal  or  political  function  is  limited ;  for  duty 
does  not  transcend  the  power  to  do.  Their  providence 
is  necessarily  imperfect,  not  reaching  to  all  persons  in 
the  kingdom,  or  to  all  actions  of  their  subject.  A  good 
king  and  a  good  father,  both,  wish  to  do  more  for  their 
charge  than  their  ability  can  reach.  Their  desirable  is 
limited  by  their  possible. 

The  Infinite  God  is  infinitely  bound  to  provide  for 
his  creatures,  inasmuch  as  he  is  infinite  God ;  Infinite 
Providence  is  the  divine  function,  his  function  as  God. 

A  Duty  involves  reciprocal  obligation  ;  a  Right  is  the 
correlative  of  a  Duty.  There  is  a  human  Duty  to  obey, 
reverence,  and  love  God,  with  our  finite  nature;  but 
also,  and  just  as  much,  is  there  a  human  Right  to  the 
protection  of  God.     So  there  is  a  divine  Duty  on  God's 


252  PROVIDENCE. 

part,  of  Providence  toward  man,  as  well  as  a  divine 
Right  of  obedience  from  man.  I  mean  to  say,  as  it 
belongs  to  the  finite  constitution  of  man  to  obey,  rev- 
erence, and  love  God  —  the  duty  of  the  finite  toward  the 
Infinite;  so  it  belongs  to  the  Infinite  constitution  of 
God  to  provide  for  man  —  the  duty  of  the  Infinite  to- 
ward the  finite.  Obedience  belongs  to  man's  nature. 
Providence  to  God's  nature.  We  have  an  unalienable 
lien  upon  his  Infinite  Perfection. 

I  know  men  often  talk  as  if  God  were  not  amenable 
to  his  own  Justice,  and  could  with  equal  right  care  for 
hi  s  creatures  or  neglect  them ;  that  his  Almighty  power 
makes  him  capable  of  immeasurable  caprice  and  lib- 
erates him  from  all  relation  to  Eternal  Right.  Hence 
it  is  often  taught  that  God  may  consistently  make  a 
vessel  of  honor  or  of  dishonor  out  of  this  human  clay, 
as  the  potter  does;  or  may  consistently  jest  with  his 
material,  waste  it,  throw  it  away,  destroy  it,  as  the 
potter's  apprentice  does  for  sport  in  some  moment  of 
caprice ;  or  may  break  the  finished  vessels  as  the  potter 
himself  does  when  drunk,  or  angry.  In  virtue  of  this 
general  notion,  it  is  popularly  taught  in  all  Christendom 
that  God  will  thus  waste  some  of  his  human  clay,  cast^ 
ing  human  souls  into  endless  misery;  and  in  the 
greater  part  of  Christendom  it  is  taught  that  he  wiU 
destroy  the  majority  of  mankind  in  this  way;  that  he 
has  a  natural  Right  to  do  so,  and  man  has  no  Right  to 
any  thing  but  the  caprice  of  God. 

This  doctrine  is  odious  to  me ;  and  I  see  not  how 
men  can  entertain  such  an  idea  of  God,  and  still  call 
him  good.  This  doctrine  is  equally  detestable  whether 
you  consider  it  in  relation  to  the  condition  of  men  con- 
sequent thereon,  or  to  the  character  of  God  which 
causes  that  condition.     This  false  idea  tends  to  unsettle 


PROVIDENCE.  253 

men's  moral  convictions.  The  consequence  appears  in 
various  forms.  The  State  teaches  in  practice  that  na- 
tional Might  is  national  right;  that  so  far  as  the  state  is 
concerned  there  is  no  right  and  no  wrong ;  whatever  it 
may  will  is  justice,  the  nation  not  amenable  to  moral 
law.  The  Church  theoretically  teaches  that  Infinite 
Might  is  infinite  right;  that  God  repudiates  his  own 
Justice;  that  so  far  as  God  is  concerned  there  is  no 
right,  no  wrong;  with  him  caprice  stands  for  reason. 
The  atheist  agrees  with  the  theologians  in  this,  only  he 
rejects  the  ecclesiastical  phraseology,  knowing  no  God. 
I  will  not  speak  of  Mercy,  commonly  conceived  of  as 
the  limitation  of  Right,  strong  manly  Justice  obstructed 
by  womanly  sentiment  and  weakness.  But  speaking 
of  bare  Justice  I  say,  that  from  the  idea  of  God  as  Infi- 
nite it  follows  that  he  has  no  right  to  call  into  being  a 
single  soul  and  make  that  soul  miserable  for  its  whole 
life ;  or  to  inflict  upon  it  any  absolute  and  unrecom- 
pensed  evil ;  no  right  to  call  into  life  a  single  worm  and 
make  that  worm's  life  a  curse  to  itself.  It  is  irreverent 
and  impious  to  teach  that  he  could  do  this.  It  is  a 
plain  contradiction  to  the  idea  of  God.  It  is  as  impos- 
sible for  him  to  create  any  thing  from  an  imperfect  mo- 
tive, for  an  imperfect  purpose,  of  imperfect  material,  or 
as  imperfect  means,  as  it  would  be  for  him  to  make 
Right,  wrong,  the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be,  or 
one  and  one,  not  two,  but  two  thousand.  I  as  finite 
man  am  amenable  to  the  laws  of  my  finite,  human  na- 
ture ;  he  as  Infinite  God  to  the  laws  of  his  infinite,  di- 
vine nature.  To  say  that  God  has  a  right,  or  a  desire, 
to  repudiate  his  Infinite  Justice,  that  he  will  do  it,  or 
that  as  God  he  can,  is  as  absurd  as  to  say  that  he  wiU 
and  can  make  one  and  one  two  thousand  and  not  two. 
And  to  me  it  seems  as  impious  as  to  say  there  is  no 

22 


254  PKOVIDENCE. 

God.  Indeed  it  is  a  denial  of  God,  not  merely  a  nega- 
tion of  his  phenomenal  existence,  but  of  the  very  Sub- 
stance of  his  Being. 

Now  from  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  God  it  follows 
that  his  Providence  is  Infinite,  that  is,  completely  perfect 
and  perfectly  complete ;  that  as  Cause  and  Providence 
he  works  continually  to  bless  his  creatures,  and  only  to 
bless  them. 

This  must  be  so :  for  the  opposite  could  only  come 
from  a  defect  of  Wisdom  —  he  did  not  know  how  to 
bring  about  their  welfare;  from  a  defect  of  Justice  — 
he  did  not  will  their  welfare ;  from  a  defect  of  Love  — 
he  did  not  desire  it ;  from  a  defect  of  Power  —  he  could 
not  bring  it  to  pass ;  or  a  defect  of  Holiness  — he  would 
not  use  the  power,  love,  justice,  and  wisdom  for  his 
creatures'  sake.  This  might  be  said  of  conceptions  of 
God  as  finite,  —  of  Baal,  Melkarth,  Jupiter,  Odin,  Je- 
hovah ;  never  of  the  Infinite  God ;  he,  inasmuch  as  he 
is  God,  must  exercise  an  infinite  Providence  over  each 
and  aU  his  works.  The  universe,  that  is,  the  sum  total 
of  created  matter  and  created  mind,  must  be  perfectly 
fitted  to  achieve  the  purpose  which  God  designs ;  that 
must  be  a  benevolent  purpose,  involving  the  greatest 
possible  bliss  for  each  and  all,  for  the  Infinite  God  could 
desire  no  other  end. 

From  this  it  follows  that  the  material  part  of  the 
universe,  and  its  spiritual  part  also,  must  be  perfectly 
adapted  to  this  end.  A  perfect  whole,  material  or  spirit- 
ual, consists  of  perfect  parts,  each  answering  its  several 
purpose,  and  so  the  whole  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  the 
whole.  No  part  must  be  lost ;  no  part  absolutely  sacri- 
ficed to  the  good  of  another,  or  of  all  others,  and  to  its 
own  harm  and  ruin. 

All  this  follows  unavoidably  from  the  idea  of  God  as 


PROVIDENCE.  255 

infinitely  perfect.  Starting  from  this  point  all  is  plain. 
But  concrete  things  often  seem  imperfect  because  they 
do  not  completely  serve  our  transient  purpose,  while 
we  know  not  the  eternal  purposes  of  God.  We  look 
at  the  immediate  and  transient  result,  not  at  the  ulti- 
mate and  permanent.  Thus  the  mariner  cannot  come 
to  port  by  reason  of  the  storm  and  rocks  which  obstruct 
his  course ;  he  thinks  the  weather  imperfect,  the  world 
not  well  made,  and  you  often  hear  men  say,  "  How 
beautiful  the  world  would  be  if  there  were  no  storms, 
no  hurricanes,  no  thunder  and  lightning."  While  if  we 
could  overlook  the  cosmic  forces  which  make  up  the 
material  world,  we  should  see  that  every  actual  storm 
and  every  rock  was  needful ;  and  the  world  would  not 
be  perfect  and  accomplish  its  function  had  not  each 
been  put  there  in  its  proper  time  and  place. 

An  oak-tree  in  the  woods  appears  quite  imperfect. 
The  leaves  are  coiled  up  and  spoiled  by  the  leaf-roller ; 
cut  to  pieces  by  the  tailor-beetle ;  devoured  by  the  hag- 
moth  and  the  polyphemus,  the  slug  caterpillar  and  her 
numerous  kindred ;  the  twigs  are  sucked  by  the  white- 
lined  tree-hopper,  or  cut  off  by  the  oak-pruner ;  large 
limbs  are  broken  down  by  the  seventeen-year-locust; 
the  horn-bug,  the  curculio,  and  the  timber-beetle  eat  up 
its  wood ;  the  gad-fly  punctures  leaf  and  bark,  convert- 
ing the  forces  of  the  tree  to  that  insect's  use ;  the  grub 
lives  in  the  young  acorn ;  fly-catchers  are  on  its  leaves ; 
a  spider  weaves  its  web  from  twig  to  twig ;  caterpillars 
of  various  denominations  gnaw  its  tender  shoots ;  the 
creeper  and  the  woodpecker  bore  through  the  bark; 
squirrels  —  striped,  flying,  red,  and  gray  —  have  gnawed 
into  its  limbs  and  made  their  nests ;  the  toad  has  a  hole 
in  a  flaw  of  its  base ;  the  fox  has  cut  asunder  its  fibrous 
roots  in  digging   his  burrow ;   the  bear  dwells  in  its 


256  PROVIDENCE. 

trunk  which  worms,  emmets,  bees,  and  countless  insects 
have  helped  to  hollow ;  ice  and  the  winds  of  winter 
have  broken  off  full  many  a  bough.  How  imperfect 
and  incomplete  the  oak-tree  looks,  so  broken,  crooked, 
cragged,  gnarled,  and  grim !  The  carpenter  cannot  get 
a  beam,  the  millwright  a  shaft,  or  the  ship-builder  a 
solid  knee  for  his  purpose ;  even  the  common  wood- 
man spares  that  tree  as  not  worth  felling ;  it  only  cum- 
bers the  ground.  But  it  has  served  its  complicated 
purpose  ;  given  board  and  lodging  to  all  these  creatures, 
from  the  ephemeral  fly,  joying  in  his  transient  summer, 
to  the  brawny  bear  for  many  a  winter  hibernating  in 
its  trunk.  It  has  been  a  great  woodland  caravansary, 
even  a  tavern  and  chateau,  to  all  that  heterogeneous 
swarm ;  and  though  no  man  but  a  painter  thinks  it  a 
perfect  tree,  —  and  he  only  because  the  picturesque 
thing  serves  his  special  purpose,  —  no  doubt  the  good 
God  is  quite  contented  with  his  oak,  and  says,  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant."  He  designed  it  to 
serve  these  manifold  uses,  and  also  to  furnish  beauty 
for  the  painter's  picture  and  meaning  for  the  preacher's 
speech.  Doubtless  it  enters  into  the  joy  of  its  Lord, 
having  completely  served  his  purpose ;  he  wanted  a 
caravansary  and  chateau  for  these  uncounted  citizens. 
To  judge  of  it  we  must  look  at  all  these  ends,  and  also 
at  the  condition  of  the  soil  that  had  a  superabundance 
of  the  matter  whereof  oak-trees  are  made. 

We  commonly  look  on  the  world  as  the  carpenter 
and  millwright  on  that  crooked  oak,  and  because  it 
does  not  serve  our  turn  completely  we  think  it  an  im- 
perfect world.  Thus  men  grumble  at  the  rocky  shores 
of  New  England,  its  sterile  soil,  its  winters  long  and 
hard,  its  cold  and  biting  spring,  its  summers  brief  and 
burning,  and  seem  to  think  the  world  is  badly  put  to- 


PROVIDENCE.  257 

gether.  They  complain  of  wild  beasts  in  the  forests, 
of  monsters  in  the  sea,  of  toads  and  snakes,  vipers  and 
many  a  loathsome  thing  —  hideous  to  our  imperfect 
eye.  How  little  do  we  know !  a  world  without  an 
alligator,  or  a  rattlesnake,  a  hyaena,  or  a  shark,  would 
doubtless  be  a  very  imperfect  world.  The  good  God 
has  something  for  each  of  these  to  do ;  a  place  for  them 
all  at  his  table,  and  a  pillow  for  every  one  of  them  in 
Nature's  bed. 

Though  Theologians  talk  of  the  infinite  goodness  of 
God  and  the  perfection  of  his  Providence,  they  have  yet 
a  certain  belief  in  a  Devil ;  even  if  it  is  not  always  a 
personal  devil,  at  any  rate  it  is  a  Principle  of  Absolute 
Evil,  which  they  fear  will,  somehow,  outwit  and  over- 
ride God,  getting  possession  of  the  world ;  will  throw 
sand  into  the  delicate  watch-work  of  the  Universe  and 
completely  thwart  the  Providence  of  the  Eternal. 

This  comes  from  that  dark  notion  of  God  which 
haunts  the  theology  of  Christendom ;  yea,  of  the  Hebrew, 
the  Mahometan,  and  Hindoo  world.  It  is  painful  to 
see  how  this  notion  prevails  amongst  intelligent  and 
rehgious  men.  They  tell  you  of  the  greater  activity  of 
the  Evil  Principle ;  they  see  it  in  the  insects  which  in- 
fect the  grain  and  fruit-trees  of  New  England,  forget- 
ting that  God  takes  care  of  these  insects  as  well  as  of 
man.  When  we  study  deeper,  we  see  that  there  is  no 
evil  principle,  but  a  good  principle,  so  often  misunder- 
stood by  men.  If  we  start  with  the  idea  of  the  infinite 
God  we  know  the  purpose  is  good  before  we  compre- 
hend the  means  thereto. 


There  are  two  ways  in  which  men  assert  the  doctrine 
22* 


258  PROVIDENCE. 

of  God's  Providence,  two  philosophical  and  antagonis- 
tic doctrines  thereof. 

I.  One  makes  God  the  only  Will  in  creation ;  ani- 
mals are  mere  machines,  wholly  subordinate  to  their 
organization ;  man  is  also  a  mere  machine,  wholly  sub- 
ordinate to  his  organization.  Thus  all  the  action  in  the 
world,  material  and  spiritual,  is  the  action  of  God. 
The  universe  consists  of  two  parts,  one  real,  the  other 
phenomenal.  First,  there  is  God  the  Actor ;  next,  a 
parcel  of  Tools  or  Puppets,  wholly  passive,  having  no 
will  or  life  of  their  own ;  and  with  these  God  works,  or 
plays.  On  this  supposition  his  Providence  has  a  clean 
sweep  of  the  universe ;  every  sentiment,  good  or  bad ; 
every  thought,  true  or  false;  every  deed,  blessing  or 
baneful,  is  his  work.  The  sun  is  an  unconscious  instru- 
ment of  God ;  I  am  a  conscious  instrument,  but  still  a 
bare  tool  in  God's  hand,  not  a  free  agent. 

This  comprehensive  scheme,  reducing  life  to  mechan- 
ism, appears  in  many  forms.  It  belongs  to  the  gross 
philosophy  of  the  materialist ;  it  is  the  cardinal  doctrine 
of  the  pantheist,  material  or  spiritual,  the  most  offensive 
and  dangerous  of  his  doctrines.  It  is  the  great  idea 
with  the  fatalists  of  all  Classes.  But  it  appears  in  the 
theological  sects  also,  as  well  as  in  philosophic  parties  ; 
for  man  cannot  escape  from  his  first  principle,  neither  in 
philosophy  nor  in  theology.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  the 
Catholic  and  Protestant  theology.  Calvin  and  d'Hol- 
bach  agree  in  this.  The  contradiction  it  leads  to  is 
plain  in  the  preaching  and  writings  of  almost  every  Cal- 
vinistic  or  Catholic  Theologian  who  tries  to  reconcile 
his  theology  with  the  common  facts  of  consciousness. 
Now  he  says  you  must  do  for  yourself  and  then  God 


PROVIDENCE.  250 

will  help  you ;  but  adds  you  can  do  nothing  till  God 
begins  it  for  you.  The  popular  hymn  contains  the 
same  contradiction, 

"  Bound  on  a  voyage  of  awful  length, 
Throuo;h  dangers  little  known, 
A  stranger  to  superior  strength, 
Man  vainly  trusts  his  own. 

"  But  oars  alone  will  not  prevail 
To  reach  the  distant  coast ; 
The  breath  of  Heaven  must  swell  the  sail. 
Or  all  the  work  is  lost." 

But  in  Dr.  Hopkins  and  Dr.  Emmons  and  their  fol- 
lowers and  predecessors,  as  well  Protestant  as  Catholic, 
this  doctrine  is  logically  carried  out  to  its  natural  re- 
sults :  in  defiance  of  consciousness ;  they  boldly  and 
simply  declare  that  God  is  the  direct  author  of  every 
thought  and  feeling,  will  and  deed.  It  is  curious  to  see 
how  men  reach  the  same  result,  starting  from  opposite 
points ;  curious  to  see  how  Antinomianism  —  Catholic 
or  Protestant — arrives  at  the  most  objectionable  char- 
acteristic of  Pantheism,  which  it  yet  so  abhors. 

On  this  hypothesis  the  function  of  Providence  ap- 
pears quite  simple:  all  action  is  God's  action.  The 
phenomenal  actor  may  be  human,  but  the  only  real 
agent  is  God.  For  example :  Cain  kills  Abel  with  a 
club,  the  spite  of  his  heart  flashing  from  his  angry  eye. 
That  is  the  phenomenon.  But  the  fact  is,  God  killed 
Abel  with  Cain's  arm ;  Cain  and  the  club  were  equally 
passive  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God.  Here  the  in- 
tervention of  Cain,  with  his  malicious  feeling  and  flash- 
ing eye,  is  only  a  part  of  the  stage  machinery,  for  theat- 
rical effect,  but  the  contriver  and  worker  of  it  all  is  God. 


260  PROVIDENCE. 

His  ways  are  simple :  matter  and  man  have  really 
nought  to  do.  This  doctrine  shocks  common  sense 
and  is  at  war  with  the  consciousness  of  every  man.  It  is 
eminently  at  war  with  religious  feeling  ;  for  on  this  sup- 
position actual  suffering  and  sin  are  of  no  human  value ; 
they  lead  to  nothing  ;  it  is  in  vain  for  the  grass  to  grow, 
the  human  hay  is  cut  and  dried  by  foreordination. 

II.  The  other  doctrine  of  Providence  makes  man  s 
will  free,  absolutely  free,  not  at  all  conditioned  by  cir- 
cumstances, bodily  organization,  and  the  like.  The  phi- 
losophical question  of  freedom  and  necessity  I  do  not 
design  to  enter  upon.  It  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
questions  in  metaphysics,  and  I  certainly  am  not  able 
to  solve  the  riddle.  There  are  difficulties  in  either  hy- 
pothesis, and  I  have  not  psychological  science  enough 
to  explain  them  in  the  court  of  intellect.  Philosophy 
is  intellect  working  in  the  mode  of  art ;  Common  Sense 
is  intellect  working  after  its  natural  instinct,  not  in  the 
technical  mode  of  art.  Philosophy  demonstrates ;  com- 
mon sense  convinces  without  demonstration.  In  de- 
fault of  philosophy,  we  must  follow  common  sense ;  that 
does  not  settle  the  matter  scientifically  and  ultimately, 
but  practically  and  provisionally,  subject  to  revision  in 
another  court.  But  common  sense  decides  in  favor  of 
Freedom.  Every  man  acts  on  that  supposition;  and 
supposes  that  other  men  are  likewise  free.  Courts  of  law 
proceed  on  this  hypothesis ;  public  opinion  distributes 
praise  or  blame ;  my  own  conscience  commends,  or  else 
cries  out  against  me.     I  am  conscious  of  freedom. 

But  a  little  experience  shows  that  this  freedom  has 
its  limitations  and  is  not  absolute.  It  is  conditioned 
on  every  side,  —  by  my   outward   circumstances,  the 


PROVIDENCE.  261 

events  of  my  history,  the  accidents  of  education,  the 
character  of  my  parents  and  daily  associates  ;  by  the 
constitution  of  my  body  —  its  varying  health,  hunger 
and  thirst,  youth,  manhood,  and  old  age.  In  compari- 
son with  a  shad-fish,  or  a  blackbird,  Socrates  has  a  good 
deal  of  freedom,  and  is  not  so  much  subordinate  to  his 
organization,  or  his  circumstances,  as  they ;  but  in 
comparison  with  the  infinite  freedom  of  God  his  voli- 
tiveness  is  little.  To  speak  figuratively,  it  seems  as  if 
man  was  tied  by  two  tethers  —  the  one  of  historic  cir- 
cumstance, the  other  of  his  physical  organization  — 
fastened  at  opposite  points,  but  the  cord  is  elastic  and 
may  be  lengthened  by  use,  or  shortened  by  abuse  and 
neglect ;  and  within  the  variable  limit  of  his  tether  man 
has  freedom,  but  cannot  go  beyond  it.  Still  further,  to 
carry  out  the  figure,  one  man  gets  entangled  in  his  con- 
fining fine  and  does  not  use  half  the  freedom  he  might 
have ;  another  continually  extends  it  and  becomes  more 
free. 

It  is  plain  that  however  these  circumstances  may  or 
may  not  limit  our  ideas,  or  will,  they  must  determine 
the  form  of  our  conceptions  and  our  power  to  execute 
them  in  works. 

On  the  hypothesis  that  man  is  absolutely,  or  partial- 
ly free,  the  function  of  Providence  is  much  more  com- 
plicated. There  are  primary  and  secondary  powers ; 
there  are  other  agents  beside  God,  using  the  power 
derived  from  him  to  work  with  after  their  own  ca- 
price :  so  God  acts  in  part  by  means  of  the  freewill 
of  men.  This  theory  seems  to  me  conformable  to 
common  sense  and  common  consciousness,  and  is  per- 
haps the  most  philosophic  of  any  that  has  yet  been 
arrived  at. 


262  PROVIDENCE. 

So  much  for  these  two  theories  of  Providence. 

There  are  two  modes  in  which  God's  providence  is 
commonly  supposed  to  act,  namely,  the  General  and 
the  Special. 

God's  general  providence,  it  is  said,  takes  in  the 
greater  part  of  cases  in  the  material  and  spiritual  world, 
and  provides  for  them.  In  this  way  he  is  thought  to 
accomplish  his  function  by  general  laws,  which  are  a 
constant  mode  of  operation,  representing  the  continual 
and  inferior  activity  of  God ;  but  this  does  not  extend 
to  aU  cases.  God's  special  providence  attends  to  par- 
ticular cases,  not  otherwise  provided  for,  and  disposes 
of  them.  One  is  a  court  of  common  or  statute  law,  the 
other  a  court  of  equity.  In  special  providence  God  is 
supposed  not  to  act  by  general  laws,  but  without  them, 
or  against  them.  AU  normal  action  in  Nature  comes 
from  general  providence  ;  all  Miracles  from  special 
providence.  Thus  a  freshet  in  the  Connecticut,  and 
the  annual  rising  of  the  Nile,  belong  under  the  general 
providence  of  God  and  come  by  the  action  of  steadfast 
laws ;  but  the  miraculous  Flood  in  the  time  of  Noah 
came  of  God's  special  providence,  having  no  cause  in 
Nature,  only  in  the  caprice  of  God.  This  form  of  spe- 
cial providence  in  Nature  is  known  only  to  the  theolo- 
gian, not  to  the  man  of  science. 

To  take  examples  from  human  affairs,  it  is  main- 
tained that  God's  general  providence  waited  on  the 
whole  human  race,  but  the  Hebrews  were  under  his 
special  providence,  and  he  went  so  far  in  their  case  as 
to  make  a  contract  with  Abraham,  which  St.  Paul 
thought  God  was  under  an  obligation  to  keep,  and 
could  not  invalidate. 


PROVIDENCE.  263 

All  men  in  general  are  under  the  general  providence, 
but  Christians  enjoy  the  special  providence  of  God,  or 
as  Dr.  Watts  has  it, 

"  The  whole  creation  is  thy  charge, 
But  Saints  are  thy  peculiar  care." 

It  is  said  that  the  forms  of  religion  in  China,  India, 
Egypt,  Greece,  and  Mexico,  came  by  the  general  provi- 
dence of  God,  growing  out  of  the  nature  of  man,  or 
coming  at  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  having  their  root 
in  the  human  or  the  infernal  nature  ;  while  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Christian  forms  of  religion  came  by  his  special 
providence,  started  in  God,  and  were  miraculously 
transplanted  to  human  soil. 

Certain  Christians  are  thought  still  more  eminently 
under  God's  special  providence.  They  are  the  "  elect," 
and  the  world  was  made  for  them.  The  Mahometan 
thinks  the  same  of  his  form  of  religion  and  of  the  elect 
Mussulmans.  Christian  theologians  say  that  saints, 
the  elect,  share  the  "  covenanted  mercies  "  of  God  and 
are  favorites,  enjoying  his  special  providence,  while  the 
rest  of  men  are  left  to  his  "  uncovenanted  mercies,"  and 
have  need  to  tremble.  The  governor  of  Massachusetts 
a  few  years  ago,  in  his  proclamation  for  a  day  of  fast- 
ing, invited  men  to  pray  God  to  bless  the  whole  United 
States  in  general,  but  to  have  "  a  special  care  of  the 
good  State  of  Massachusetts."  The  Hebrews,  thinking 
God  cared  nothing  for  the  Gentiles,  praised  him  saying, 
"  Thou  didst  march  through  the  land  in  indignation. 
Thou  didst  thrash  the  heathen  in  anger ;  thou  wentest 
forth  for  the  salvation  of  thy  people ; "  "  Thou  didst 
drive  out  the  heathen  with  thine  hand." 

So  Christians  think  God  has  his  favorites  amongst 
men,  and,  like  a  partial  father,  takes  better  care  of  some 


264  PROVIDENCE. 

of  his  children  than  of  the  rest:  you  and  I  share  his 
common  concern  and  are  under  his  general  laws ;  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  had  his  special  care  and  was  under  special 
laws.  It  would  be  thought  a  great  impiety  to  suppose 
that  God  felt  as  much  concern  for  Judas  as  for  Jesus, 
and  would  no  more  suffer  the  son  of  Simon  to  be  ulti- 
mately lost,  than  the  son  of  Mary.  Yet  if  you  think 
twice  you  will  see  that  the  impiety  is  on  the  other  side ; 
for  if  God  does  not  care  as  much  for  Iscariot  as  for 
Christ,  as  much  desiring  and  insuring  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  one  as  the  other,  then  he  is  not  the  In- 
finite Father  whose  ways  are  equal  to  all  his  children, 
but  partial,  unjust,  cruel,  wicked,  and  oppressive.  You 
do  not  think  so  well  of  the  British  government  because 
it  neglects  its  feeblest  subjects,  the  laboring  millions, 
making  England  the  paradise  of  the  rich  and  strong, 
the  purgatory  of  the  wise  and  good,  and  the  hell  of  the 
poor  and  weak.  You  condemn  the  government  of  the 
United  States  because  it  has  its  favorites,  and  oppresses 
and  enslaves  the  feeblest  of  its  citizens  to  increase  the 
riches  of  indolent  and  cruel  men.  You  would  not 
employ  a  schoolmaster  who  turned  off  the  duU  boys  and 
beat  the  bad  ones,  disposed  to  truancy  and  mischief, 
driving  them  out  into  the  streets  to  swelter  in  crime, 
to  fester  in  jail,  or  rot  on  the  gallows.  What  indigna- 
tion would  suffice  towards  a  mother  who  neglects  a 
backward  boy,  takes  no  pains  with  the  girl  that  is  a 
cripple,  or  with  a  son  who  has  an  organic  and  hereditary 
tendency  to  dissipation  and  licentiousness  ?  I  do  not 
like  to  say  a  man  is  impious  without  proof  that  he 
means  it ;  but  to  attribute  so  base  a  character  and  such 
unjust  conduct  to  God  as  you  would  not  respect  in  a 
government,  allow  in  a  schoolmaster,  or  endure  in  a 
mother,  is  thoughtless,  to  say  the  least  of  it.     But  that 


PROVIDENCE.  265 

is  the  common  idea  of  God  in  the  Christian  churches, 
and  the  common  idea  of  his  providence. 

The  modern  notion  of  a  special  providence,  wherein 
God  acts  without  law  or  against  law,  is  the  most  spirit- 
ual and  attenuated  form  of  the  doctrine  of  miracles,  the 
last  glimmering  of  the  candle  before  it  goes  out.  Men 
who  give  up  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus  still  claim 
that  he  was  under  the  special  providence  of  God.  As 
the  State  has  general  laws  which  apply  well  enough  to 
the  majority  of  cases,  but  has  special  legislation  for 
the  exceptional  cases  which  were  not  provided  for  by 
the  general  statutes ;  and  as  it  has  a  jury  whose  func- 
tion is  to  determine  if  the  law  shall  punish  this  or  the 
other  man  who  has  violated  it,  so  the  popular  theology 
teaches  that  God's  providence  has  its  general  legisla- 
tion, which  applies  well  enough  to  the  majority  of  cases, 
and  its  special  legislation,  which  applies  only  to  the  ex- 
ceptional cases,  with  its  particular  mercy,  which  like  the 
jury  refuses  to  execute  the  law  when  it  seems  too  hard. 
For  it  is  tacitly  taken  for  granted  by  the  popular  theol- 
ogy that  God  did  not  foresee  and  provide  for  all  the 
wants  of  the  Universe,  material  or  spiritual,  but  is  some- 
times taken  by  surprise,  things  not  turning  out  as  he 
designed  or  expected,  and  so  he  must  interfere  by  special 
miracles,  mend  his  work,  set  up  makeshifts  and  pro- 
visional expedients.  Thus  it  is  represented  that  the 
loneliness  of  Adam  in  Paradise,  his  seduction  and  fall, 
the  subsequent  wickedness  of  his  descendants,  the  trans- 
gressions of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  general  sinfulness  of 
mankind  at  a  later  day,  were  all  a  surprise  to  the  Crea- 
tor, things  not  turning  out  according  to  his  thought. 
New  expedients  must  accordingly  be  devised  to  meet 
the  unexpected  emergency. 

In  like  manner  it  is  taught  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 

23 


266  PROVIDENCE. 

was  under  the  special  providence  of  God ;  that  all  his- 
tory prepared  for  him  and  pointed  to  him ;  that  he  had 
a  special  mission ;  while  you  and  I  are  only  under  the 
general  providence,  history  has  not  prepared  for  us,  does 
not  point  to  us,  and  we  have  no  special  mission; — in 
short,  that  Jesus  is  a  providential  man,  with  a  provi- 
dential function  and  history,  while  you  and  I  are  not 
providential  men  and  have  no  providential  history  or 
function. 

This  common  theological  notion  of  the  limited  gen- 
eral providence  and  limited  special  providence  of  God 
belongs  to  the  very  substance  of  the  popular  theology, 
and  springs  from  its  idea  of  God  as  finite  in  power,  in 
wisdom,  in  justice,  and  in  love.  Some  ancient  and  some 
modern  philosophers,  seeing  the  change  and  progress  in 
manifestation,  believe  there  is  a  corresponding  change 
in  the  manifestor,  and  declare  that  God  is  not  a  Being 
but  a  Becoming.  The  popular  theology  has  the  same 
vice,  —  though  the  theologians  are  not  conscious  thereof, 
and  denounce  it,  believing  that  God  grows  wiser  by 
experiment,  and  must  alter  his  plans.  Yet  in  con- 
tradiction of  their  own  statements,  they  declare  him 
without  variableness  and  shadow  of  turning ;  while  ac- 
cording to  the  popular  theology  the  history  of  God  is 
a  history  of  revolutions,  even  in  his  dealing  with  his 
chosen  people,  the  revelation  through  the  Messiah  being 
flat  opposite  to  the  revelation  through  Moses  which  it 
annuls.  Pantheism  and  the  popular  theology,  hostile 
as  they  are,  agree  in  this  strange  conclusion  —  the 
negation  of  the  Infinite,  and  the  affirmation  of  a  vari- 
able God.  The  pantheist  consciously  denies  the  one 
and  affirms  the  other,  in  laying  down  his  premises ;  the 
theologian  does  it  unconsciously,  in  developing  his  con- 
clusion. 


PROVIDENCE.  267 

From  the  Nature  of  God  as  Infinite,  from  the  rela- 
tion he  sustains  to  the  creation,  as  perfect  and  perpet- 
ual Cause  thereof,  it  follows  that  his  Providence  must 
be  not  barely  special  —  eminently  providing  for  certain 
things,  —  or  general  —  taking  care  of  the  great  mass  but 
letting  exceptional  particulars  slip  through  his  fingers ; 

—  it  must  be  universal.  It  must  extend  to  each  thing 
he  has  created,  to  all  parts  of  its  existence  and  to  every 
action  thereof.  If  it  be  not  so,  then  either  some  parts 
of  creation  are  entirely  derelict  of  God,  destitute  of  his 
Providence,  without  his  care,  neglected  by  him  and  out- 
laws from  God,  put  to  the  ban  of  the  Universe  ;  or  else 
destitute  of  his  Providence  during  some  portions  of  their 
existence,  or  in  some  acts  of  their  lives.  Either  case  is 
at  variance  with  the  Infinite  nature  and  function  of  God. 
For  when  the  Infinite  God  created  the  universe,  it  must 
have  been  from  a  perfect  motive,  of  a  perfect  material, 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto  ; 
and  he  must  therefore  have  understood  it  all  completely 

—  in  each  of  its  parts,  and  perfectly  —  in  all  the  details 
of  each  part;  and,  knowing  all  the  powers,  he  fore- 
knows all  the  actions,  necessitated  or  contingent,  and 
provides  for  each.  This  must  be  true  of  the  Universe 
as  a  whole ;  and  of  each  part  thereof.  All  its  actions 
must  be  thus  provided  for.  The  laws  of  the  Universe, 
the  constant  modes  of  operation  of  the  material  or 
human  forces,  must  be  founded  on  this  complete  and 
perfect  knowledge,  and  coextensive  therewith,  and  be 
exponents  of  that  motive  and  servants  of  that  purpose. 
This  is  what  is  meant,  when  it  is  said  the  laws  of 
matter  and  of  mind,  belong  to  the  nature  and  consti- 
tution of  matter  and  of  mind.  These  laws  are  formed 
after  a  complete  knowledge  of  all  the  properties,  func- 
tions, and  consequences  of  matter  and  mind.     Before 


268  PROVIDEITCE. 

there  were  two  particles  of  matter  in  existence,  the  Infi- 
nite God  must  have  understood  the  law  of  attraction, 
in  its  larger  form  as  gravitation,  its  smaller  as  cohesion, 
and  have  known  that  thereby  the  tower  of  Siloam  would 
one  day  fall  and  slay  eighteen  men  ;  that  many  a  beet- 
ling crag  would  tumble  to  the  ground,  and  Alpine  land- 
slips bring  thousands  of  men  to  premature  destruction. 
But  all  those  laws,  thus  made,  must  coincide  with  the 
motive  of  God  and  be  means  for  his  purpose;  they 
must  suit  the  welfare  of  the  whole  creation  and  of  each 
part  thereof.  This  must  be  true  of  the  material  world 
which  is  unconscious  and  not  free  ;  of  the  animal  world 
which  is  not  free  yet  partially  conscious ;  of  the  human 
world  which  is  conscious  and  partially  free  ;  and  of  all 
superhuman  worlds  with  higher  degrees  of  conscious- 
ness and  freedom. 

To  this  universal  extent  must  all  things  be  under  the 
Providence  of  God ;  to  this  extent  his  constant  modes 
of  operation  must  needs  reach  out. 

Then  if  you  look  at  the  relation  of  God  to  any  one 
thing,  say  the  grub  of  a  Buprestian  beetle  boring  into 
the  bough  of  the  oak  I  just  now  spoke  of,  it  seems  as  if 
God  made  the  bough  of  the  tree  expressly  for  that  little 
incipient  insect ;  and  the  oak  for  the  bough ;  and  the 
soil  for  the  oak  :  the  globe,  with  all  its  ups  and  downs, 
which  Geology  relates,  seems  made  for  the  soil;  and 
the  Universe  for  the  globe.  So  it  appears  that  that 
little  larva  of  a  beetle  is  the  end,  or  final  cause,  of  the 
universe,  stands  on  the  top  of  the  world,  and  has  all 
creation  to  wait  on  him,  with  the  God  thereof  as  provi- 
dential overseer.  Then  regarding  this  grub  as  the  one 
thing  the  Universe  was  designed  to  serve,  theologians 
might  say,  "  Behold  God's   providence  is  special ;    He 


PROVIDENCE.  269 

has  special  legislation  to  suit  this  Buprestian  grub,  and 
has  aimed  the  whole  world  at  this  mark.  See  how  all 
things  prepare  for  that ;  the  sun  and  moon  are  only  its 
forerunners,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  behold  a  grub  ! " 
But  when  the  theologian  studies  the  condition  of  the 
next  grub  in  an  oak-apple,  or  a  gall-nut,  or  in  the  near- 
est bough,  he  finds  them  all  as  well  conditioned,  and 
sees  that  God  takes  care  of  the  Lymexylon,  the  Hyle- 
CEetus,  and  the  Brenthus  as  well  as  of  the  Buprestian ; 
that  each  of  them  stands  just  as  much  on  the  top  of  the 
world,  with  the  universe  to  wait  thereon  and  God  as 
overseer.  You  may  study  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
oak-tree  —  the  toad,  the  squirrel,  the  fox,  the  bear,  it  is 
true  of  them  all.  Yes,  it  is  true  of  every  special  thing 
in  the  world,  when  you  fully  understand  that  special 
thing  in  all  its  existence,  in  each  act  of  its  life.  We 
cannot  by  experiment  and  observation  prove  this  so 
clearly  in  every  instance  as  in  some  special  case,  but 
starting  with  the  Idea  of  God  as  infinite,  the  conclusion 
foUows  at  once,  —  that  his  Providence  in  reference  to 
each  particular  thing  is  a  perfect  Providence, 

Then  if  you  look  at  the  relation  of  God  to  the  Uni- 
verse, you  see  that,  as  far  as  you  understand  it,  the 
whole  is  as  well  taken  care  of  and  provided  for  as  the 
most  contented  grub  who  lives  on  the  bounty  of  the 
oak ;  and  you  say,  "  Here  is  general  providence,  God 
acting  by  general  laws  for  general  purposes;  things 
work  well  on  the  whole,  and  '  if  now  a  bubble  bursts, 
and  now  a  world,'  it  is  only  a  small  exception. .  The 
attraction  of  gravitation  is  a  good  thing,  it  keeps  the 
world  together;  and  if  the  tower  of  Siloam,  thereby 
falling  to  the  ground,  slays  eighteen  men  of  Jerusalem, 

23* 


270  PROVIDENCE. 

that  number  is  tpo  small  to  think  of,  considering  the 
myriad  millions  who  are  upheld  by  this  same  law." 

A  law  that  is  perfectly  special,  providing  for  each, 
is  also  completely  general,  providing  for  all.  In  other 
words,  it  is  universal.  God's  Providence  must  be  infi- 
nite, lilte  his  nature.  Special  and  general  are  only 
forms  in  which  we  conceive  of  that  providence ;  —  in  its 
relation  to  a  single  thing  men  name  it  special,  to  many 
things,  general,  while  it  extends  to  all  and  is  universal. 
Accordingly  it  neither  requires  nor  admits  of  miraculous 
makeshifts  and  provisional  expedients,  which  theolo- 
gians think  indispensable  to  their  finite  God. 

When  God  created  mankind  he  must  have  given 
thereto  the  powers  which  are  requisite  to  accomplish  all 
his  purpose.  This  must  be  true  of  manldnd  as  a  whole, 
and  of  Amos  and  Habakkuk,  of  each  man,  as  a  part 
thereof;  of  each  man  considered  individually  as  an 
integer,  and  considered  socially,  or  humanly  as  a  frac- 
tion of  the  community,  or  race,  and  so  a  factor  in  the 
social,  or  general  human  result  of  the  life  of  mankind. 
Of  course  God  must  foreknow  what  use  or  abuse 
would  be  made  of  these  powers,  given  in  their  present 
proportion,  just  as  well  as  he  knows  it  now,  after  all  the 
experience  of  centuries.  Knowing  human  nature,  he 
must  foreknow  human  history.  For  example,  God 
must  have  foreknown  that  young  children  would  stum- 
ble bodily  in  getting  command  of  their  limbs,  in  learn- 
ing to  walk,  and  suffer  pain  in  consequence  thereof; 
that  older  children  would  stumble  spiritually  in  getting 
command  of  their  spirits,  in  learning  to  think  and  to 
will,  and  suffer  in  consequence  of  that ;  that  mankind 


PROVIDENCE.  271 

as  a  whole  would  stumble  in  getting  command  of  the 
material  world,  and  the  development  of  their  human 
powers  ;  and  accordingly  there  would  be  suffering  from 
that  cause. 

Now  God,  inasmuch  as  he  is  God,  acts  providen- 
tially in  Nature  not  by  miraculous  and  spasmodic  fits 
and  starts,  but  by  regular  and  universal  laws,  by  con- 
stant modes  of  operation  ;  and  so  takes  care  of  material 
things  without  violating  their  constitution,  acting  al- 
ways according  to  the  nature  of  the  things  which  he 
has  made.  It  is  a  fact  of  observation  that  in  the  mate- 
rial and  unconscious  world  he  works  by  its  materiality 
and  unconsciousness,  not  against  them ;  in  the  animal 
world  by  its  animality  and  partial  consciousness,  not 
against  them.  Judging  from  the  nature  of  God  and 
of  man,  it  must  be  concluded  that  in  the  providential 
government  of  the  human  world,  he  acts  also  by  regular 
and  universal  laws,  by  constant  modes  of  operation; 
and  so  takes  care  of  human  things  without  violating 
their  constitudon,  acting  always  according  to  the  hu- 
man nature  of  man,  not  against  it,  working  in  the  hu- 
man world  by  means  of  man's  consciousness  and  par- 
tial freedom,  not  against  them. 

Here  in  the  human  world  God's  providence  must 
be  as  complete  and  as  perfect  as  there  in  the  material 
or  animal  world,  in  each  department  acting  by  the  nat- 
ural laws  thereof,  not  without  or  against  them.  As  by 
the  very  constitution  of  material  or  animal  things  God's 
providence  acts  by  the  natm-al  laws  thereof —  statical, 
dynamical,  and  vital  laws  —  so  from  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  man  it  appears  that  his  perfect  Providence  must 
work  according  to  the  spiritual  laws  thereof ;  for  it  is 
not  conceivable  either  that  God  should  devise  laws  not 
adequate  for  his  purpose,  or  capriciously  depart  from 


272  PROVIDENCE. 

them  if  made  adequate.  Call  this  Providence  special 
as  it  applies  to  Hophni  and  Phineas,  or  general  as  it 
applies  to  all  the  children  of  Jacob,  it  is  plain  that  it 
must  be  universal,  applying  to  all  material,  animal,  and 
human  things. 


If  these  things  are  so,  if  God  be  Infinite,  then  the 
Hebrew  nation  is  under  his  universal  Providence ;  but 
the  Amalekites  whom  the  Hebrews  overthrew,  and  the 
Romans  who  captured  the  conquerors,  and  the  Goths 
who  vanquished  the  Romans,  are  all  and  equally  under 
the  universal  Providence  of  God  who  cares  equally  for 
t'.em  all.  Not  only  are  the  nations  under  his  Providence 
in  their  great  acts,  but  in  their  little  every-day  transac- 
tions. Theologians  love  to  think  that  God  was  present 
with  the  Hebrews  in  their  march  out  of  Egypt,  at 
Mount  Sinai ;  that  their  exodus  and  legislation  were 
providential.  It  is  all  true  ;  but  the  same  Providence 
watched  equally  over  the  English  Pilgrims  in  their  exo- 
dus ;  over  the  British  Parliament  making  laws  at  West- 
minster, the  American  Congress  at  Philadelphia  and 
"Washington.  It  is  well  to  see  this  fact  in  Hebrew  his- 
tory ;  well  also  to  go  further  forward  and  see  it  in  all 
human  history,  and  to  know  that  human  nature  is 
divine  Providence. 

The  common  theological  notion  of  a  special  Provi- 
dence, with  its  special  favorites,  is  full  of  mischief. 
Some  intensely  national  writer  in  the  Hebrew  Old  Tes- 
tament tells  us  that  Noah  cursed  the  descendants  of 
Ham  for  their  father's  folly  ;  theologians  inform  us  that 
in  consequence  thereof  his  descendants  are  cast-off,  out- 
laws from  God.  But  there  are  no  outlaws  from  the 
Infinite  Father :    to  say  he  casts  off  any  child  of  his, 


PROVIDENCE.  273 

Hebrew  or  Canaanite,  is  as  absurd  as  to  say  he  alters 
the  axioms  of  mathematics,  or  the  truths  of  the  multi- 
plication table.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  nature  and 
constitution  of  the  Infinite  God  ;  it  is  as  impossible  as 
that  one  and  one  should  be  two  thousand,  and  not 
two.  The  African  nations,  whom  the  Caucasians  en- 
slave, must  be  as  dear  to  God  as  the  pale  tyrants  who 
exploiter  them,  just  as  much  under  his  infinite  Provi- 
dence, which  will  not  suffer  any  ultimate  and  unrecom- 
pensed  evil  to  befall  the  black  or  white. 

All  individuals  then  must  be  equally  under  the  same 
providential  care  of  the  Infinite  God  ;  not  merely  great 
men,  the  Charlemagnes,  the  Cromwells,  the  Napoleons, 
"  men  of  destiny  "  as  they  are  called,  but  the  little  men  ; 
not  merely  the  good  men,  the  heroes  of  religion,  the 
Moseses  and  the  Jesuses,  but  the  ordinary  men,  and 
wicked  men,  not  barely  in  their  great  moments,  when 
they  feel  conscious  of  God,  but  in  their  daily  work  and 
humble  consciousness.  Then  it  is  plain  that  not  only 
Moses  and  Jesus  are  providential  men  intrusted  with  a 
special  mission,  but  you  and  I  and  each  man  are  just 
as  much  providential  men,  equally  intrusted  with  a 
mission,  not  the  less  special  because  it  is  humble  and 
and  our  powers  are  weak.  The  unnatural  Spartan 
father  rejects  and  disdains  his  idiot  girl,  leaving  her  to 
perish  on  Mount  Taygetus ;  the  theologian  casts  off  his 
son,  grown  up  wicked  and  a  public  criminal,  leaving 
him  to  perish  unpitied  in  his  jail.  But  the  loving-kind- 
ness of  the  Infinite  Father  watches  over  the  fool ;  the 
tender  mercy  of  the  Infinite  Mother  takes  up  the  crimi- 
nal when  mortal  parents  let  him  fall.  There  is  no  child 
of  perdition  before  the  Infinite  God. 

Now  God,  as  the  infinitely  perfect,  must  accomplish 


274  PKOVIDENCE. 

his  providential  function  by  the  laws  which  belong  to 
the  nature  and  constitution  of  things  ;  that  is,  by  the 
normal  and  constant  mode  of  operation  of  the  natural 
powers  resident  in  those  things  themselves  ;  in  material 
and  animal  nature  by  the  forces  and  laws  thereof ;  in 
human  nature  by  its  forces  and  its  laws.  For  as  Prov- 
idence is  the  divine  execution  in  time  of  the  eternal 
divine  purpose,  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  God  supersedes 
or  annuls  the  means  which  he  primarily  designed  for 
that  purpose.  The  classic  deist  supposed  the  material 
w^orid  was  the  work  of  one  God  ;  and  the  arrangement 
of  human  affairs  the  work  of  another.  Between  the 
two  there  was  a  collision  and  a  quarrel,  the  world-gov- 
ernor must  interfere  with  the  work  of  the  world-maker  ; 
Causality  and  Providence  were  antagonistic.  But 
with  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God  this  antithetic  dual- 
ism vanishes  at  once  away. 

The  creative  Causality  of  the  Infinite  God  is  like- 
wise conservative  and  administrative  Providence. 

So  from  the  nature  of  the  infinitely  perfect  God  and 
the  consequent  perfection  of  his  motive,  material,  pur- 
pose, and  means  thereto,  it  foUows  that  he  wiU  not  de- 
stroy as  infinite  Providence  what  he  created  as  infinite 
Cause ;  that  He  will  not  violate  the  laws  and  break  the 
constitution  which  he  himself  has  made.  Accordingly, 
in  the  midst  of  God's  Providence  working  from  a  per- 
fect motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  by  means  of  the 
constitution  and  nature  of  man,  a  Providence  extending 
to  all  men  and  to  their  every  act,  it  is  plain  that  Hu- 
man Freedom  is  safe,  and  the  Ultimate  Welfare  of  each 
man  is  made  sure  of,  as  certain  as  the  existence  of  God, 
or  of  man. 

Atheism  tells  you  of  a  world  without  a  God,  a  great 
going,  but  a  going  with  none  to  direct :  the  popular 


PROVIDENCE.  275 

Theology  declares  that  this  going  is  directed  by  a  finite 
and  changeable  God,  jealous,  revengeful,  loving  Jacob 
and  hating  Esau,  working  by  fits  and  starts,  even  in 
wrath  destroying  what  he  made  imperfect,  beginning 
anew  and  designing  to  torment  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind in  everlasting  woe  —  "  miserable  to  have  eternal 
being." 

But  with  the  absolute  Religion,  a  knowledge  of  God 
as  Infinite  how  different  do  all  things  appear !  We 
have  confidence,  absolute  trust  in  the  motive  and  Pur- 
pose of  God,  absolute  trust  also  in  the  Means  which  he 
has  provided  in  the  nature  and  constitution  of  things. 
The  human  faculties  become  then  the  instruments  of 
Providence.  Every  man  is  under  the  protection  of 
God  —  and  all  fear  of  the  final  result  for  you,  or  me,  or 
for  mankind,  quite  vanishes  away.  The  details  we 
know  not ;  experience  reveals  them  a  day-full  at  a  time ; 
the  result  we  are  sure  of. 

Timid  men  who  think  that  God  is  miserly  and  the 
great  Hunker  of  the  Universe,  sometimes  fear  the  ma- 
terial world  will  not  hold  out ;  some  little  "  perturba- 
tions "  are  discovered,  now  the  Earth  approaches  the 
Sun  for  many  years,  perhaps  never  twice  has  described 
exactly  the  same  track ;  so  they  fear  the  earth  will  fall 
into  the  fire  and  the  world  be  burned  up.  But  by  and 
by  we  find  that  these  "  perturbations "  only  disturbed 
the  astronomer,  doubtful  of  God;  that  to  the  Cause 
and  Providence  of  the  world  they  were  eternally  known, 
fore-cared  for ;  that  they  are  normal  acts  of  faithful 
matter,  and  so  all  undisturbed  the  world  rolls  on.  Con- 
stant is  balanced  by  constant.  Variable  holds  variable 
in  check.  In  her  cyclic  rotation  round  the  earth  the 
Moon  nods  ;  the  Earth  oscillates  in  her  r3rthmic  round, 
while  the  Sun  nods  also,  as  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the 


276  provid'ence. 

solar  system  shifts  now  a  little  this  way,  then  a  little 
that ;  nay  the  whole  Solar  System,  it  is  likely,  swings 
a  little  from  side  to  side :  but  all  this  has  been  foreseen, 
provided  for,  balanced  by  forces  which  never  sleep,  and 
one  thing  set  over  against  another  in  such  a  sort  that  all 
work  together  for  good,  and  the  great  Chariot  of  Mat- 
ter sweeps  on  through  starry  space  keeping  its  God- 
appointed  track.  Such  is  the  Providence  of  God  in  the 
Universe,  not  an  atom  of  star-dust  is  lost  out  of  the  sky, 
not  an  atom  of  flower-dust  is  lost  from  off  this  dirty 
globe ;  such  are  the  laws  by  which  God  works  his  func- 
tions out  in  Nature.  Ignorance  is  full  of  dread  and 
starts  at  terrors  in  the  dark,  trembles  at  the  earthquake 
and  the  storm.  But  science  justifies  the  ways  of  God 
to  matter,  knowing  all  and  loving  all,  discloses  every- 
where the  immanent  and  ever  active  force.  Where 
Science  does  not  understand  the  mode  of  action,  nor 
read  the  details  of  perfection  clearly  in  the  Work  —  it 
points  to  Infinite  Perfection  in  the  Author,  and  we 
fear  no  more. 


SERMOK  IX. 

OF   PROVIDENCE  — THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN. 
24  (277) 


ECCLESIASTICUS   XLIT.  24. 

HE  HATH  MADE  NOTHING  IMPERFEC 

(278) 


IX 


OF    THE    ECONOMY   OF  PAIN    AND    MISERY    UNDER 
THE    UNIVERSAL    PROVIDENCE    OF    GOD. 


Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Providence  in  its  most  gen- 
eral form,  as  the  universal  execution  of  the  perfect  pur- 
poses of  God  by  the  perfect  means  He  had  originally 
devised.  Closely  connected  with  this  are  two  things 
which  demand  attention,  namely,  the  phenomena 
which  are  called  Evil  and  Sin,  and  the  relation  there- 
of to  the  causal  and  providential  function  of  the  In- 
finite God. 

To  understand  this  matter  of  Evil,  to  know  its  mode 
of  origin  and  of  operation,  and  the  purpose  it  serves, 
considerable  nicety  of  thought  is  necessary ;  and  of 
course  considerable  precision  in  the  terms  which  ex- 
press and  define  thought. 

The  word  Evil  is  ambiguous  in  its  meaning,  and  has 
both  a  wide  and  a  narrow  signification.  Sometimes  it 
means  something  painful  for  which  there  is  no  ade- 
quate compensation  to  the  sufferer.  Sometimes  it 
means  something  painful  for  which  there  is  an  ade- 
quate compensation  to  the  sufferer.  In  this  Sermon  I 
will  use  the  word  Evil  in  its  general  and  ambiguous 

(279) 


280  PROVIDENCE. 

sense,  while  the  two  special  forms  thereof,  —  the  un- 
compensated and  the  compensated,  —  I  will  call  Abso- 
lute Evil  and  Partial  Evil. 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  these  terms. 

The  phenomena  called  Evil  may  for  convenience,  be 
distributed  into  two  general  forms,  or  modes  :  — 

I.  Evil  which  does  not  come  from  a  conscious  and 
voluntary  transgiession  of  a  natural  law  of  the  Body  or 
the  Spirit;  that  is,  Pain  and  Misery.  This  may  be 
more  minutely  designated  and  distinguished  by  refer- 
ence to  the  part  through  which  we  suffer  —  as  physical 
pain,  suffering  by  the  body  ;  spiritual  pain,  suffering  by 
what  is  not  body. 

II.  Evil  which  comes  from  a  conscious  and  volun- 
tary transgression  of  a  natural  law  of  the  body  or  the 
spirit;  that  is  Sin,  meaning  thereby  the  transgression 
with  aU  its  subjective  and  objective  consequences. 

So  much  also  for  the  definition  of  these  terms. 
To-day  I  shall  speak  only  of  Pain  and  Misery ;  and 
of  them  chiefly  in  the  form  of  Physical  Evil. 

In  the  world  of  mere  Matter,  there  is  no  conscious- 
ness, no  freedom,  no  will.  It  is  subject  wholly  to  stat- 
ical and  dynamical  laws  in  their  various  forms;  and 
there  is  therefore  no  Pleasure  and  no  Pain.  That 
department  of  creation  seems  designed  merely  for  a 
theatre  on  which  animated  beings  are  to  find  scope 
for  action,  and  whence  they  may  obtain  their  means 
of  livelihood.  I  think  no  man  pretends  to  find  any  evil 
there. 

But  there  is  the  world  of  Animals  and  of  Man  con- 
scious in  higher  or  lower  degrees,  and  with  more  or  less 
of  freedom,  gifted  with  partial  power  of  will.     Here  is 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  281 

the  field  for  Pleasure  and  Pain  —  the  elements  of  Hap- 
piness and  of  Misery,  the  two  poles  of  life.  Here  occur 
the  phenomena  of  Evil. 

By  Pleasure  I  mean  the  state  which  comes  from  the 
fulfilment  of  the  natural  conditions  of  animate  exist- 
ence; fi-om  the  normal  satisfaction  of  natural  desires. 
By  Pain  I  mean  the  state  which  comes  from  non-fulfil- 
ment of  those  natural  conditions ;  from  the  absence  of 
the  normal  satisfaction  of  those  desires.  Of  course  I 
include  in  that  state  not  only  the  negative  form  of  evil 
—  lack  of  the  desirable,  but  the  positive  form  of  evil  — 
presence  of  the  hateful.  Happiness  is  prolonged  pleas- 
ure ;  Misery  is  prolonged  pain. 

Happiness  is  great  in  proportion  to  the  greatness  of 
the  faculties  which  seek  their  natural  satisfaction ;  and 
in  proportion  Hkewise  to  the  completeness  of  the  satis- 
faction itself.  So  there  is  a  quahtative  distinction,  of 
the  specific  modes  of  Happiness  —  as  it  comes  from  sat- 
isfying high  or  low  deskes ;  and  a  quantitative  distinc- 
tion of  the  particular  degrees  thereof — the  satisfaction 
being  partial  or  total.  On  the  other  hand  Misery  is 
great  or  little  in  proportion  to  the  faculties  and  their 
satisfaction ;  and  there  is  the  same  qualitative  and  quan- 
titative distinction  —  of  modes  and  degrees  thereof. 


Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  the  phenomena  of 
Physical  Evil.  And  for  clearness'  sake  let  us  attend 
first  to  the  simplest  forms  thereof,  and  thence  ascend 
up  to  the  more  complex  and  difiScult. 

In  the  Animal  world  happiness  usually  preponderates 
over  misery.  The  two  most  powerful  groups  of  instincts 
in  the  animal  world  are  those  which  relate  to  the  pres- 

24* 


282  PROVIDENCE. 

ervation  of  the  individual  and  the  perpetuation  of  the 
race.  Those  instincts  are  commonly  satisfied.  Hence 
comes  the  general  aspect  of  happiness  throughout  this 
department  of  the  universe.  Not  one  mosquito  in  a 
million,  it  is  probable,  ever  tastes  of  blood ;  and  not  one 
in  a  million  ever  suffers  from  hunger.  You  never  saw 
a  melancholy  fly,  or  a  wild  squirrel  that  was  unhappy ; 
the  elephant,  the  lion,  the  monkey,  and  the  crocodile 
seem  to  have  a  good  time  in  the  world.  Happiness  is 
obvious  in  the  young  of  animals ;  but  it  is  just  as  act- 
ual in  the  old,  only  it  assumes  a  graver  form,  and  so 
is  not  so  apparent  to  the  careless,  or  inexperienced  eye : 

"  Thy  creatures  leap  not,  but  express  a  feast, 
Where  all  the  guests  sit  close,  and  nothing  wants." 

Still  some  animals,  it  is  obvious,  suffer  pain ;  all  are 
capable  of  it ;  perhaps  all  the  higher  animals,  some  time 
in  their  lives,  are  made  to  suffer.  It  may  be  asked,  "  Is 
it  possible  that  there  shall  be  pain  in  the  animial  world 
which  the  Infinite  God  has  created  from  perfect  motives, 
of  perfect  material,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  per- 
fect means  thereto  ?  "   I  answer.  Yes. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  I  can  clear  up  all  the  difhculties 
in  this  matter  by  the  inductive  mode  —  of  studying 
the  details,  and  thereby  learning  their  law  and  showing 
how  each  particular  form  of  evil  turns  into  good ;  —  I 
shall  be  obliged  to  refer  to  the  idea  of  God  as  Infinite, 
and  from  that  deduce  the  value  of  the  function  of  the 
special  forms  of  pain  and  misery.  This  will  often 
happen.  The  wisest  man  is  only  a  child  as  yet.  Phi- 
losophy has  read  but  few  pages  of  this  great  book  of 
Nature,  whereof  all  must  be  known  fully  to  understand 
a  part.  When  I  know  there  is  an  Infinite  God,  I  am 
sure  that  his  purpose  is  good  and  his  means  adequate 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  283 

I  spontaneously  trust  therein.  This  instinctive  trust 
outruns  the  reflective  demonstration  of  science.  Still 
it  is  both  pleasant  and  satisfactory  to  learn  the  use 
and  function  of  things  by  themselves,  by  an  inductive 
study  of  the  facts,  and  not  be  constrained  to  deduce  the 
conclusion  merely  from  the  idea  of  God.  In  some  in- 
stances this  is  not  difficult ;  nay,  in  the  present  condition 
of  science,  it  is  not  hard  to  learn  the  general  tendency 
of  things  in  Nature,  and  thence  get  the  analogy  of  the 
whole  to  help  explain  particular  parts.  But  no  man  I 
think  as  yet  has  been  able  to  explain  all  these  cases 
by  the  purely  inductive  process.  To  do  that  he  must 
know  all  the  powers  and  consequent  actions  and  history 
of  each  thing  in  the  universe. 

All  finite  things  must  needs  be  conditioned ;  the  In- 
finite alone  is  absolutely  self-conditioned.  Thus  the 
bodies  of  animals  must  needs  depend  on  the  world 
about  them ;  wherein  are  things  helpful  —  meant  for 
the  animals  they  serve,  and  things  harmful  —  not  meant 
for  the  animals  they  hurt.  Continued  use  of  the  harm- 
ful things  would  destroy  the  individual  and  so  the  race. 

Accordingly  the  animal  fi-ame  is  made  susceptible 
of  Pain  from  the  use  of  the  harmful  Substances,  and 
of  Delight  fi-om  the  use  of  the  helpful. 

Sometimes  this  pain  comes  before  the  consummation 
of  the  use :  thus  poisonous  plants  are  commonly  odious 
to  the  eye,  or  nauseous  to  the  smell,  or  hateful  to  the 
taste  of  the  creature  they  would  injure.  Here  the 
momentary  pain,  the  transient  disgust,  comes  as  a  fore- 
warning against  a  foe.  Poisonous  plants,  it  is  said, 
have  somewhat  in  their  structure  which  warns  off"  the 
animals  they  would  else  destroy,  some  special  ugliness 
telegraphing  to  the  senses,  the  unfitness  of  the  thing 


284  PROVIDENCE. 

for  use.  "  The  Devil,"  says  a  chemist,  "  is  always 
chained."  If  not  he  is  painted  black,  to  scare  away 
the  creatures  he  would  molest.  How  nicely  the  sheep 
and  horses  avoid  all  noxious  things.  Ijobelia  would 
kiQ  horses ;  the  pungent  plant  reads  the  riot-act  of  Na- 
ture as  soon  as  it  is  tasted  and  warns  the  offenders  of 
their  transgression.  The  benevolent  motive  and  pur- 
pose of  this  form  of  pain  is  obvious  at  once. 

Then  there  are  Modes  of  Action  which  are  possible 
to  an  animal,  but  which  would  be  fatal  if  persisted  in : 
these  also  are  attended  by  pain.  A  young  rabbit  heed- 
lessly running  through  briars  tears  his  tender  skin  and 
smarts ;  and  so  avoids  this  rending  of  his  coat.  If  the 
pain  did  not  warn  him,  he  would  tear  his  skin  to  pieces 
and  lose  his  life  in  seeking  to  save  it.  A  dog  running 
over  sharp  stones  would  soon  wear  out  his  feet;  the 
pain  warns  him  of  the  peril  before  it  is  too  late.  If  he 
were  to  lose  a  limb  he  must  go  limp  and  lame  all  his 
life,  for  another  leg  will  not  shoot  out  to  take  the  place 
of  the  one  he  has  wasted  and  used  up.  The  suffering 
makes  him  careful ;  he  keeps  his  feet,  and  goes  four- 
legged  all  his  days. 

The  lobster  and  the  crab  have  a  thick  and  nearly  in- 
sensible shell,  for  protection  against  ravenous  enemies ; 
but  such  is  the  nature  of  their  covering  that  their  limbs 
are  brittle  and  easily  rent  off,  another  soon  taking  the 
place  of  that  which  is  lost.  The  animal  suffers  but  little 
pain  from  that  injury.  With  him  it  is  no  great  hard- 
ship to  lose  a  limb  which  is  so  easily  supplied  anew. 
But  the  lobster  cannot  bear  any  great  change  of  tem- 
perature, such  is  his  constitution  ;  it  would  destroy  his 
life.  So  his  shell  is  a  good  conductor  of  heat,  and  he 
is  keenly  sensitive  to  the  alternations  of  heat  and  cold. 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  285 

This  sensitiveness  and  the  pain  it  brings  if  he  goes  out 
of  his  proper  temperature,  keep  him  always  in  such 
places  as  suit  his  organization,  in  a  temperature  con- 
genial to  his  nature,  in  waters  which  also  supply  his 
food.  The  dog  can  bear  a  great  range  of  temperature, 
clad  in  his  non-conducting  coat,  which  also  accommo- 
dates itself  to  the  changes  of  climate.  Variations  of 
heat  and  cold  are  not  painful  to  him.  The  dog's  sen- 
sitiveness of  touch,  and  the  lobster's  sensitiveness  to 
heat  and  cold  bring  pain  to  both;  but  the  suffering 
keeps  the  lobster  in  his  place,  and  preserves  the  limbs  of 
the  dog  safe  and  sound.  Give  the  dog  the  lobster's  in- 
sensibility to  pain  from  the  sense  of  touch,  he  would  run, 
or  fight  till  he  wore  his  legs  off  of  his  body  ;  give  the  lob- 
ster the  dog's  sensitiveness  to  this  form  of  pain,  and 
living  as  he  does  in  the  ceaseless  wash  of  the  waters, 
with  brittle  limbs,  his  life  would  be  a  torment  while  it 
lasted,  and  in  torment  would  it  soon  end.  Give  the 
dog  the  lobster's  sensitiveness  to  heat  and  cold,  he 
would  be  miserable  most  of  the  time  and  soon  die  ; 
give  the  lobster  the  dog's  indifference  to  temperature, 
the  currents  of  the  sea  would  soon  sweep  him  away 
from  his  food,  from  his  natural  position,  and  he  and  his 
race  would  speedily  perish.  The  pain  of  both  is  only 
adequate  to  keep  each  in  his  proper  place :  it  is  the 
tether  by  which  they  are  bound  out  and  kept  from 
harm. 

Such  is  the  general  use  of  this  form  of  pain  in  the 
animal  world ;  it  is  a  natural  warning  against  ruin,  a 
sentinel  for  ever  mounting  guard  over  the  natives  of  the 
earth,  the  sea,  and  air,  giving  early  admonition  when 
danger  draws  nigh. 

If  you  look  widely  and  carefully,  you  will  find  there 
is  always  the  most  nice  and  cunning  adaptation  of  the 


286  PROVIDENCE. 

pain  to  the  end  it  is  to  answer.  Is  a  condition  of  ex- 
istence neglected,  an  instinct  left  without  its  satisfac- 
tion; is  a  wrong  mode  of  action  resorted  to,  or  im- 
proper food  eaten,  uneasiness  and  pain  warn  the  of- 
fender of  his  mistake,  and  drive  him  from  it.  This 
pain  is  so  effectual  that  the  master-instincts  of  an  ani- 
mal become  irresistible:  only  external  violence  can 
check  the  rush  of  Nature,  and  if  driven  out  she  soon 
comes  back.  How  uneasy  are  the  birds  of  passage  at 
the  time  of  their  annual  migrations !  Their  pain  warns 
them  against  the  ruin  which  a  northern  winter,  or  a 
southern  summer,  would  bring  upon  the  Swallow,  or  the 
Stork. 

The  pain  which  comes  from  Fear  is  of  the  same  re- 
medial character.  The  Hare  has  a  feeble  body ;  a  rude 
touch  drives  her  life  out  of  the  thin  walls  of  its  habita- 
tion. She  is  the  natural  prey  of  the  hawk,  the  fox,  and 
the  wild-cat;  even  the  mink  and  the  weasel  easily 
master  her.  See  how  she  is  furnished  with  quick,  ca- 
pacious, and  variable  ears,  with  prominent  and  ready 
eyes ;  nimble  to  start  and  swift  to  run.  She  is  cautious, 
timid,  and  fearful  to  a  remarkable  degree;  she  runs 
from  any  danger,  facing  nothing  that  is  formidable. 
She  has  no  power  to  resist  any  of  her  natural  enemies. 
Fear  is  her  sentinel.  When  her  last  hour  comes,  she 
dies  almost  at  a  touch  from  her  enemy,  apparently  with 
little  pain.  Her  chief  suffering  is  from  fear,  and  that  is 
only  adequate  to  attach  her  life  to  her. 

So  far  as  I  have  seen,  or  read,  this  is  true  in  all  de- 
partments of  animal  life  —  the  ordinary  mode  of  death, 
though  often  a  violent  one,  is  attended  with  very  little 
pain ;  and  the  suffering  from  fear  is  only  sufficient  to 
keep  the  creatures  on  their  guard.     The  bull  is  strong 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  287 

and  tough,  able  to  endure  a  severe  contest  with  a  pow- 
erful enemy.  He  is  constitutionally  courageous,  and 
marches  forth  to  meet  the  danger  which  threatens  him. 
The  timidity  of  the  hare  would  be  ridiculous  in  the  bull, 
and  his  fearlessness  fatal  to  her. 

Then  there  is  the  pain  which  animals  suffer  at  the 
Loss  of  their  Mates,  or  their  Young.  You  see  exam- 
ples of  this  in  aU  animals  that  match  in  pairs,  and  guard 
and  protect  their  httle  ones.  The  monogamous  robin 
mourns  at  the  loss  of  his  mate,  or  at  the  plunder  of  his 
nest.  The  ferocious  white  bear,  it  is  said,  moans  like 
a  human  mother  at  the  loss  of  her  cubs.  The  suffering 
of  sheep  and  cows  when  their  children  are  torn  from 
them,  is  too  well  known  and  very  sad.  But  this  pain, 
with  the  attendant  fear  of  the  loss,  is  only  sufficient  to 
lead  the  mates  to  protect  each  other,  the  parents  to 
watch  over  and  defend  their  child.  This  fear  often 
creates  a  certain  heroism  in  the  bosoms  of  animals 
which  are  otherwise  cowardly.  The  hen  is  commonly 
a  garrulous  and  restless  busybody,  bustling  about  all 
day,  a  weak  and  timid  animal,  fleeing  from  every  tri- 
fling danger.  When  the  maternal  instinct  moves  her  to 
brood  over  the  eggs  which  contain  her  unseen  progeny, 
how  all  is  changed!  The  restless  busybody  sits  silent 
and  patient  as  a  stone,  all  day  incumbent  on  her  nest. 
An  extraordinary  amount  of  heat  is  developed  in  her 
body.  Her  timidity  vanishes  ;  she  becomes  courageous, 
and  rushes  out  to  defend  her  nest,  and  still  more  to  pro- 
tect her  new-born  brood.  She  defies  danger,  and  will 
sacrifice  her  life  rather  than  desert  her  little  flock.  If 
the  brood  is  lost,  her  torment  is  exceeding  great.  After 
her  fledglings  are  grown  up  they  become  strangers  to 
her ;  her  anxiety  and  her  courage  vanish  out  of  sight,  or 


288  PROVIDENCE. 

sleep  as  a  reserved  power,  till  another  occasion  calls 
them  forth.  Here  pain  is  the  ally  of  affection,  the  fam- 
ily girdle  to  keep  her  little  household  together.  In  ani- 
mals which  require  no  parental  care,  there  is  no  fear  of 
this  sort,  no  affection  for  it  to  guard.  The  salmon  and 
the  herring  drop  their  embryo  in  the  appropriate  spot, 
leaving  it  to  the  care  of  Nature.  After  the  young  calf 
has  outgrown  the  need  of  its  mother's  care,  to  her  it  is 
but  one  of  the  common  herd ;  the  feeling  of  kindred  is 
extinct. 

In  aU  these  cases  the  conservative  function  of  these 
four  forms  of  pain  is  evident  at  once,  as  soon  as  the 
facts  are  made  known.  And  the  balance  between  the 
provisional  pain  and  the  final  purpose  it  is  to  serve  is 
so  exactly  sustained,  that  it  is  a  delight  to  the  think- 
ing man  to  see  the  ways  of  Providence  with  these 
Httle  children  of  the  common  Father. 

"  Each  creature  hath  a  wisdom  for  his  good : 

The  pigeons  feed  their  tender  offspring,  crying, 
When  they  are  callow ;  but  withdraw  their  food 

When  they  are  fledge,  that  Need  may  teach  them  flying." 

Still  there  are  sufferings  in  the  animal  world  for 
which  I  can  see  no  present  recompense.  Some  lose  a 
limb  in  youth  and  suffer  all  their  life  ;  others  are  scantily 
fed.  Those  in  the  hands  of  man  are  often  maimed,  ill- 
treated,  and  hindered  from  developing  their  nature  as 
animals,  and  so  made  to  suffer.  Man  "  improves  "  the 
breeds  of  cattle.  He  does  not  always  improve  them  as 
horses,  cows,  or  swine,  but  only  as  animated  tools  for 
his  service.  Sometimes  he  only  exploiters  them.  His 
"  racers "  and  "  draft  horses,"  his  "  Ayrshires,"  and 
"  North-Devons,"  his  "  Merinoes  "  and  "  Saxonies,"  are 


THE   ECONOMY   OE   PAIN.  289 

as  much  works  of  human  invention  as  the  spinning-jenny 
and  the  printing-press.  Very  useful  contrivances  for 
man's  purpose,  they  are  less  horses,  oxen,  and  sheep,  it 
seems  to  me,  than  were  their  savage  progenitors  thou- 
sands of  years  ago.  They  have  suffered  a  change. 
They  cannot  defend  themselves  if  turned  out  in  the 
forests,  nor  find  their  food  in  the  wild  where  the  Aurochs 
rejoices  to  live.  But  I  doubt  that  this  change  is  at- 
tended with  any  necessary  unhappiness.  The  domestic 
dog  seems  to  me  quite  as  happy  an  animal  as  the  wild 
dog.  If  we  take  into  the  account  all  the  animals  con- 
nected with  man,  with  or  without  his  consent,  they  have 
far  more  happiness  than  misery.  The  horse  and  the 
cow  seem  in  part  designed  for  the  use  and  service  of 
man,  and  may  perform  that  service  with  no  unnatural 
harm  to  themselves.  Their  nature  is  exceeding  pliant 
under  the  plastic  hand  of  man ;  the  artificial  forms  of 
the  cow-kind  seem  to  me  as  happy  as  the  wild  forms. 

But  still  there  is  pain  and  misery  in  the  animal 
world.  Now  howsoever  Paul  may  interpret  the  He- 
brew Bible,  it  is  plain  the  Infinite  God  "  doth  take  care 
for  oxen."  The  injuries  of  a  whale  that  in  his  childhood 
gets  his  jaw  broken,  and  goes  all  his  life  with  a  twisted 
mouth,  a  deformed  and  most  unlucky  whale  ;  the  mis- 
fortunes of  a  horse  owned  by  some  master  more  beastly 
than  the  brute,  must  have  all  been  known  by  God  at 
the  creation,  provided  for  and  compensated  in  some 
way.  The  use  of  animal  pain  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
it  is  easy  to  discern,  and  to  see  that  it  has  a  benevolent 
function  to  accomplish.  The  general  analogy  of  Nature 
leads  to  the  inference  —  it  is  no  more,  —  that  it  must 
likewise  be  so  in  these  exceptional  cases.  But  from 
the  Idea  of  the  Infinite  God  we  know  it  must  be  so ; 
that  this  exceptional  pain  must  not  be  absolute  evil  to 

25 


290  PROVIDENCE. 

the  individual  sufferer,  but  disciplinary  —  leading  to 
some  good  else  not  attainable ;  and  so  compensated  by 
the  ultimate  welfare  which  it  helps  attain.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  know  how  this  is  brought  about ;  I  know  not 
the  middle  terms  which  intermediate  between  the  mis- 
ery I  see  and  the  blessedness  I  imagine.  I  only  know 
that  the  ultimate  welfare  must  come  to  the  mutilated 
beast  overtasked  by  some  brutal  man.  If  it  be  not  so 
then  the  universe  is  not  a  perfect  world ;  it  is  imperfect 
in  this  particular,  that  it  does  not  serve  the  natural  pur- 
pose of  these  creatures,  who  go  incomplete  and  suffer- 
ing. If  God  be  Infinite  then  he  must  make  and  admin- 
ister the  world  from  perfect  motives,  for  a  perfect  pur- 
pose, and  as  a  perfect  means,  —  all  tending  to  the  ulti- 
mate and  absolute  blessedness  of  each  thing  he  directly 
or  mediately  creates ;  the  world  must  be  administered 
so  as  to  achieve  that  purpose  for  each  thing.  Else  God 
has  made  some  things  from  a  motive  and  for  a  purpose 
not  benevolent,  or  as  a  means  not  adequate  to  the  be- 
nevolent purpose.  These  suppositions  are  at  variance 
with  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  God. 

I  do  not  see  how  this  benevolent  purpose  can  be  ac- 
complished unless  all  animals  are  immortal  and  find 
retribution  in  another  life.  I  know  many  will  -think  it 
foolish,  and  some  impioas,  to  speak  of  ihe  Immortality 
of  Animals.  But  without  this  supposition  I  cannot 
"  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  "  to  the  horse  and  the  ox. 
To  me  the  immortality  of  all  animals  appears  in  har- 
mony with  the  analogy  of  Nature,  rational,  benevolent, 
and  beautiful.  Many  of  the  arguments  for  human  im- 
mortality apply  as  well  to  the  case  of  the  bee  and  the 
elephant  as  to  John  and  Paul.  The  argument  from 
consciousness  is  here  out  of  place  —  as  man  knows 
nothing  of  the  consciousness  pf  the  sheep  and  swine. 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  291 

There  are  but  two  arguments  which  I  have  ever  heard 
brought  against  the  immortality  of  animals  —  one  is 
drawn  from  the  selfishness  of  man,  who  wants  a  mo- 
nopoly of  all  desirable  things,  and  so  would  shut  beast 
and  bird  out  of  heaven ;  the  other  comes  from  the 
common  notion  of  the  Deity,  that  he  is  a  mean  and 
stingy  God,  making  heaven  little  and  hell  large.  Let 
both  pass  for  what  they  are  worth.  If  the  Spanish  In- 
quisitor and  the  American  Kidnapper  can  be  thought 
immortal  and  capable  of  eternal  happiness,  I  see  not 
how  we  can  deny  eternal  life  to  any  Abyssinian  Hyae- 
na, or  to  a  Rattlesnake  from  Kentucky,  far  less  ugly 
and  venomous.  It  seems  to  me  that  philosophical 
theology  confirms  the  instinctive  nature  of  the  "  poor 
Indian," 

"  Who  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

If  this  be  so,  then  pain  or  misery  in  the  animal  world 
is  not  an  Absolute  Evil ;  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is 
a  beneficent  sentinel  to  warn  creation  of  the  approach 
of  ruin,  and  in  the  exceptional  cases  is  a  servant  that 
by  some  unknown  way  conducts  to  bliss, 

"  Making  a  chiming  of  a  passing-bell." 


In  the  World  of  Man  the  affair  is  much  more  com- 
plicated ;  but  if  the  animal  world  be  rightly  understood, 
this  other  is  not  difficult  to  comprehend.  The  amount 
of  individual  freedom  is  so  much  greater  with  men  than 
with  animals,  that  we  commonly  say,  man  is  free  — 
self-ruled,  —  while  beasts  are  bound,  ruled  wholly  by 
some   objective   force,   tools   and   not   agents.      Man's 


292  PROVIDENCE. 

tether  is  indeed  much  longer  than  theirs  ;  and  his  mar- 
gin of  possible  oscillation  is  much  greater.  For  man 
having  powers  so  much  more  various,  and  consequently 
an  immediate  destination  so  much  nobler,  stands,  in 
general,  in  more  complicated  relations  with  Nature, 
and  the  individual  with  his  species,  and  is  subject  to  a 
greater  variety  of  conditions.  Accordingly  there  is 
with  him  so  much  the  more  room  for  generic  and 
individual  caprice,  for  violating  the  conditions  of  wel- 
fare and  of  material  existence  ;  so  much  more  room  for 
pain  and  misery.  This  is  so  with  mankind,  and  with 
each  man,  at  every  particular  stage  of  his  conscious 
existence. 

But  in  addition  to  this  statical  complication  of  his 
nature,  man  has  other  dynamical  complications  which 
take  place  in  his  historical  development.  Man  is  pro- 
gressive ;  each  man  advancing  not  only  from  babyhood 
to  manhood,  —  for  that  is  so  with  the  lion  and  the  lob- 
ster, —  but  also  from  manhood  till  death.  Not  only  is 
each  man  thus  progressive  as  an  individual,  but  each 
nation  as  a  people,  and  mankind  as  a  race.  Amid  the 
fluctuations  of  individuals  the  nation  rolls  on  from  its 
babyhood  to  its  manhood;  and  amid  the  fluctuations 
of  states  and  families,  of  nations,  the  mighty  Stream 
of  Humanity  sweeps  on  to  its  destination,  bearing  in 
its  eternal  bosom  every  human  excellence  which  any 
individual  or  any  people,  has  developed  and  brought  to 
light. 

At  every  step  the  individual,  the  nation,  and  the  race 
are  subject  to  the  natural  conditions  of  personal,  social, 
and  general  human  welfare ;  conditions  which  are  rig- 
orous and  unavoidable.  All  this  development  of  the 
individual  and  the  race  is  progress  by  experiment ;  for 
while  the  crystal  is  formed,  and  the  tree  grows,  by  pro- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  293 

cesses  which  have  their  origin  solely  in  the  Infinite 
Cause  ;  while  each  individual  lion  and  the  whole  lion- 
kind  grow  up  with  little  conscious  thought,  or  personal 
will,  the  individual  man,  and  the  man-kind  do  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  shape  their  own  forms  of  being.  This 
progression  by  experiment  involves  both  experiments 
that  fail  and  experiments  that  succeed.  The  failure 
brings  pain ;  if  long  continued,  misery.  This  is  so 
with  the  merely  s  peculative  experiment,  with  thought : 
the  faulty  demonstration,  "the  sum  which  will  not 
come  out  right,"  pains  the  boy  at  school ;  the  halting 
tragedy  racks  the  feeble-minded  poet ;  nay  the  imper- 
fections in  the  works  of  Homer  and  ^schylus,  of  Dante 
and  Shakspeare,  tortured  those  mighty  bards.  Still 
more  is  this  the  case  with  practical  experiments,  with 
deeds:  the  little  girl,  learning  the  limits  between  the 
Me  and  Not-me,  mistakes  and  burns  her  fingers  in  the 
candle's  flame ;  the  great  nation  learning  the  limits 
between  the  Just  and  the  Unjust,  or  the  Expedient 
and  Unprofitable,  mistakes  and  loses  millions  of  men 
Necessity  confines  the  beasts  within  a  narrow  road 
where  instinct  impels  them  on ;  they  cannot  wander 
much.  Freedom  opens  for  us  a  long  and  wide  field, 
with  opportunity  for  pain  and  misery.  The  child 
makes  unsuccessful  experiments  in  becoming  a  man ; 
the  man  in  reaching  after  more  manhood ;  mankind, 
in  all  our  history  makes  experiments  that  fail ;  all  are 
painful.  Such  are  the  conditions  of  our  human  lot, 
conditions  which  to  the  nature  of  a  finite,  progres- 
sive, and  free  being  seem  as  much  indispensable  a? 
gravitation  to  atoms  of  matter  representing  the  pri- 
mary law. 

The  actual  amount  of  pain  and  misery  is  far  greater 
in  the   human  world   than   in   the   animal  world.     It 

25* 


294  PKOVIDBNCE. 

seems  to  me  greater  in  proportion  to  their  respective 
quantity  of  being.  The  Caucasian  baby  is  a  grief  to 
her  mother  before  she  rejoices  that  a  child  is  born ;  he 
is  a  torment  to  himself  before  he  has  his  first  teeth ;  a 
trovible  to  his  father  in  growing  up.  Man  has  all  the 
animal  sources  of  pain,  and  many  more  peculiar  to 
himself,  springing  from  his  more  mountainous  quantity 
of  being,  its  nicer  quality,  and  the  greater  complication 
thereof.  The  grown  animal  is  not  capable  of  progres- 
sive development;  has  no  experiments  to  make,  no 
failures  to  mourn  over,  nor  suffer  from.  The  race  of 
animals  makes  no  failures,  no  progress,  no  experiment. 
No  lion  in  Africa  weeps  for  his  prodigal  son.  The 
tigress  is  not  crossed  in  love.  No  patrician  game-laws 
hinder  the  fox  from  "free  warren"  everywhere.  The 
hippopotamus  has  no  feudal  superior ;  the  wild-cat  has 
eminent  domain  in  the  woods,  "  free  fishing  and  fowl- 
ing." There  is  no  despotic  Nicholas  or  Ferdinand  to 
torture  the  race  of  wild  swine,  with  unreasonable  insti- 
tutes hedging  in  the  liberty  of  Nature.  No  revolution- 
ists, no  red-republicans  jostle  the  rulers  of  the  woods 
and  seas ;  no  progressive  Kossuths  and  Mazzinis  over- 
turn the  oligarchy  of  white  or  black  elephants,  and  form 
a  democracy  among  the  cattle.  There  is  no  pain  from 
bad  institutions,  —  no  failure  to  have  good  ones.  No 
timid  owl  or  monkey  is  ever  alarmed  at  the  "  Spread 
of  Infidelity."  The  ravens  that  wander  crying  for  lack 
of  meat  and  finding  it  as  they  fly,  have  no  fear  of 
eternal  damnation,  no  "  Adam's  fall "  to  make  their 
faces  gather  blackness ;  the  "  federal  head "  of  the  crows 
never  "  fell."  There  is  no  popular  theology,  no  atheism, 
with  the  pigeons  and  blackbirds. 

The  aspect  of  the  world  of  animals  is  one  of  happi- 
ness.    What  a  contrast  between  that  and  the  condition 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  295 

of  man !  The  bob-o'-link  in  the  grass  under  my  window 
seeking  food  for  her  little  nest-full  of  promises,  is  happy 
as  a  bird  can  be ;  her  joy  runs  over  in  delightful  song. 
Her  beauty  of  sound  meets  the  morning  beauty  of 
light,  and  what  a  psalm  they  sing,  the  sunrise  and  the 
bird,  to  eye  and  ear !  Compare  her  with  the  mothers 
in  the  houses  all  about  me,  and  in  the  great  cities  of 
the  world,  the  mothers  who  groan  in  labor — of  beg- 
gary, of  prostitution,  of  drunkenness,  of  many-liveried 
sin!  Not  one  mosquito  in  a  million  suffers  from 
hunger;  of  the  thousand  million  men  how  many  will 
die  outright  of  starvation ;  how  many  go  stooping  and 
feeble  for  want,  and  will  at  last  be  thereby  shuffled 
off  the  stage  of  life !  How  contentedly  this  caterpillar 
makes  ready  for  her  transfiguration,  one  day  to  come 
out  fair  as  the  light  with  more  than  mythical  resplen- 
dence. How  sadly  the  seamstresses  of  Boston,  New 
York,  and  London,  prepare  their  garments  of  trans- 
figuration —  the  shroud  which  painful  fingers  are  so 
long  in  making  ready  for  death,  who  is  always  in  sight, 
yet  so  slow  in  coming!  What  an  odds  between  the 
Song  of  a  Cocoon  and  "  the  Song  of  a  Shirt ! "  This 
grasshopper, 

"  Green  little  loiterer  in  the  sunny  grass, 
Catching  his  heart  up  at  the  feel  of  June," 

is  never  to  seek  for  his  daily  bread.  Yonder  cow  takes 
no  thought  for  raiment ;  the  beaver  is  not  afraid  of  be- 
ing warned  out  of  his  lodgings  and  turned  upon  the 
world,  his  wife  and  children  brought  to  the  side-walk ; 
the  pains  of  parturition  and  dentition,  with  that  troop 
of  diseases  which  crowd  about  the  cradle  of  human 
infancy,  are  all  unknown  to  the  wild  camel,  the  bear, 
and  the  elephant.     The  buffalo  is  never  concerned  for 


296  PKOVIDENCE. 

the  raiment  of  his  sons  and  daughters,  clad  and  shod  in 
Nature's  best.  No  wild-cat  has  any  difficulty  in  train- 
ing up  her  sons ;  the  horse-leech  has  no  concern  for 
the  marriage  of  his  two  proverbial  daughters.  Every 
oyster  is  contented  with  his  own  "  bank."  There  are 
no  changes  of  tariff  to  perplex  the  free-traders  of  sea, 
and  land,  and  sky.  No  protective  system  is  repealed 
to  the  damage  of  the  insect-manufacturers  —  of  the  bee, 
or  the  spider,  or  the  silk-worm.  The  Providence  of  God 
is  the  great  Protective-system  for  aU  these  children  of 
the  world.  The  universal  laws  —  they  never  change. 
The  aristocracy  of  the  ant-hill  does  not  exploiter  the 
common  people  ;  not  a  queen  bee  feared  a  crisis  in 
"  the  year  of  revolutions."  Compare  a  hive  of  bees  — 
in  woods  or  garden,  —  or  a  family  of  beavers,  with 
Boston  or  Lowell,  with  Paris  or  Lyons ;  and  what  an 
odds  betwixt  the  welfare  of  the  two!  Consider  the 
poverty,  the  want,  the  ignorance,  the  disease,  the  drunk- 
enness, and  vice,  and  crime,  and  shortened  life,  which 
make  up  the  misery  of  the  poor ;  consider  the  anxiety 
and  servility,  the  disappointed  ambition  and  defeated 
affections,  which  so  mar  the  welfare  of  the  thriving  and 
the  rich ;  and  what  a  difference  there  is  between  this 
human  misery  and  the  contentment  of  the  beast ;  —  a 
difference  which,  at  first  sight,  seems  out  of  proportion 
to  the  different  degrees  of  power  and  of  freedom  — 
misery  increasing  as  the  square  of  the  amount  of  free- 
dom !  The  whole  world  of  Nature  does  not  furnish 
a  St.  Giles  parish  for  the  beasts ;  not  a  human  city  is 
without  one ! 

Still  omitting  nothing  and  extenuating  nothing,  it 
seems  to  me  the  proportion  of  misery  in  the  world  is 
overrated  by  benevolent  men.  Happiness,  contentment 
of  the  actual  wants,  surpasses  unhappiness,  that  discon- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  297 

tented  hunger  after  what  cannot  be  reached.  It  is  so  in 
convents  and  asylums,  with  the  poor  in  large  towns 
like  London  and  New  York,  —  such  is  the  human 
power  of  accommodation  to  circumstances.  Plastic 
man  is  pliant  also.  Take  any  settlement  of  men,  Es- 
quimaux, Pawnees,  Turks,  Chinese,  Gaboons,  Bush- 
mans,  Britons,  happiness  far  surpasses  misery.  Go  into 
the  lowest  parts  of  Boston,  or  London,  to  the  abodes  of 
want  and  crime,  it  is  so  there.  True  it  is  a  low  form 
of  happiness,  and  you  mourn  at  so  much  contentment 
with  so  little  welfare. 

Yet  there  is  pain  and  misery  of  the  saddest  sort.  It 
comes  from  non-fulfilment  of  the  conditions  of  animal 
life  —  from  want  of  food,  of  fire,  air,  and  water,  of  shel- 
ter and  raiment;  from  sickness,  fear,  grief;  from  the 
lack,  or  the  loss,  of  objects  of  passion  and  affection; 
from  defeated  ambition,  defeated  love ;  from  want  of 
culture  — of  one  or  all  the  faculties. 

AH  this  must  have  been  foreseen ;  it  is  a  part  of  the 
scheme  of  things — the  calculated  consequence  of  man's 
ignorance,  or  want  of  self-adaptation  to  the  world  of 
matter.  It  can  be  no  astonishment  to  God.  Yet  at 
first  sight  it  appears  as  if  there  was  an  imperfection  in 
God's  work.  This  misery,  w^hich  haunts  mankind, 
seems  a  disgrace  to  the  world  and  a  standing  impeach- 
ment of  the  Providence  of  God.  "  Call  this  a  perfect 
world,"  says  some  kind-hearted  man,  "  a  perfect  means 
for  a  perfect  purpose  ?  Under  the  Providence  of  the 
Infinite  God  is  it  I  —  Then  whence  this  vermin  pain 
which  bores  into  every  house  and  every  heart  ?  The 
world  is  fuU  of  Evil,  Absolute  Evil ;  this  toad,  ugly  and 
venomous,  squats,  full  of  poison,  in  every  garden  which 
man  plants.  Could  not  God  make  a  world  without 
Misery?" 


898  PROVIDENCE. 

"Well,  the  finite  must  needs  be  conditioned  —  its  ex- 
istence one  of  limitation.  The  question  is  whether  the 
present  condition  contains  any  absolute,  or  any  need- 
less partial  Evil.  As  it  was  shown  before,  pain  is  inci- 
dental to  the  development  of  a  finite  being  with  even  a 
small  amount  of  freedom.  But  as  man  is  more  free, 
and  individually  and  generically  progressive,  a  larger 
amount  of  pain  is  incidental  to  his  existence.  But  look 
at  some  conjectural  schemes  of  human  life. 

Suppose  man  had  been  made  with  no  capability  of 
progress  either  of  the  individual,  from  manhood  to  old 
age,  or  of  the  race,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end ;  and 
put  in  the  rudest  condition  of  the  lowest  tribe  of  men  — 
of  the  Bushmans,  or  the  Patagonians ;  but  had  all  his 
wants  as  completely  and  as  easily  met  as  the  oysters  in 
the  waters  of  Virginia,  so  that  the  whole  world  was  a 
perpetual  Point  Comfort  to  each  man ;  that  there  was 
no  pain,  no  possibility  of  suffering ;  so  that  he  had  no 
desire  which  could  lead  him  astray  at  all,  no  freedom 
to  go  astray,  but  by  his  organization  was  bound  fast  to 
the  actual,  —  would  be  a  better  state  of  things  ?  No- 
body thinks  so. 

Suppose  this  unprogressive  and  painless  creature 
elevated  to  the  highest  degree  of  our  present  civilization 
—  to  the  intellectual  condition  of  the  philosophers  who 
make  up  the  Academies  of  Paris,  of  Berlin,  and  of 
London  ;  surrounded  with  all  the  circumstances  which 
suit  that  stage  of  development ;  as  fully  satisfied  as  the 
oyster,  and  as  incapable  of  any  progress  —  individual  or 
generic  ;  —  incapable  of  pain ;  without  freedom  of  fur- 
ther development ;  by  his  organization  bound  fast  to  the 
actual,  no  ideal  beauty  —  intellectual,  moral,  affectional, 
or  religious,  —  hovering  about  his  head;  and  that  an 
undisturbed  satisfaction  filled  up  the  consciousness  of 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  299 

man.  Would  that  be  a  better  state  of  things  than  the 
present  condition  of  Germany,  France,  and  England  — 
better  as  a  finality  than  the  present  as  a  stage  of  pro- 
gress in  the  ever  unfolding  growth  of  man  ?  No 
thinker  will  think  so.  For  those  philosophers  are  as 
far  from  a  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  powers  of  their 
human  nature  almost  as  the  Bushmans. 

We  are  made  with  a  nature  which  demands  contin- 
ual progress ;  the  instinct  of  development  is  amazingly 
powerful  in  the  race.  Mankind  is  not  content  to  stand 
still,  stopping  at  the  Bushman's  elevation,  or  at  the 
stage  where  the  modern  philosopher  gathers  into  his 
comprehensive  mind  the  riches  of  present  human  con- 
sciousness. The  Ideal  haunts  the  human  race  and 
through  eminent  tongues  calls  out  to  man  continually, 
"  Onward,  onward."  All  advance  is  progression  by 
experiment;  many  an  attempt  fails  of  its  end  —  the 
human  child  is  borne  with  pain.  But  who  is  there  that 
does  not  see  that  man  has  a  higher,  nobler  destiny  than 
the  creatures  which  have  no  freedom,  —  bound  to  the 
present  ? 

Suppose  man  made  capable  of  progress,  and  —  as 
finite  —  of  experiments  that  fail,  and  yet  incapable  of 
pain.  Would  that  be  a  good  exchange?  Look  at 
some  examples.  A  man  will  not  eat  when  he  is  hun- 
gry :  suppose  God  by  a  transient  miracle,  or  a  perma- 
nent law  forbid  the  pain  which  now  comes  from  lack  of 
food;  the  man  would  die  of  inanition,  die  without 
warning.  Suppose  he  would  eat  when  not  hungry,  or 
in  excessive  quantity,  and  no  pain  followed  this  viola- 
tion of  the  natural  rule  of  temperance  ;  he  would  die  of 
repletion,  die  unwarned  of  his  peril.  Suppose  he  would 
eat  what  was  harmful,  things  not  meant  for  human 
food ;  would  it  be  well  if  there  were  no  disgust  of  any 


300  PEOVIDENCE. 

sense,  to  notify  the  man  before  the  mistake,  no  torture 
in  any  member  to  warn  him  of  the  error  ?  Would  it  be 
well  to  have  an  amount  of  pain  not  adequate  to  remind 
him  of  the  peril  ? 

What  if  a  man  would  not  work  even  for  the  most 
needful  things ;  and  God,  like  a  foolish  mother,  to  spare 
him  the  present  consequences  of  laziness,  either  by 
special  fleeting  miracles,  or  by  general  and  permanent 
law,  gave  him  all  the  desirable  outward  things  which 
now  come  from  the  long-continued  toil  of  men.  What 
if  all  things  came  at  his  desire ;  he 

"  —  need  but  wish  and  instantly  obeyed, 
Fair  ranged  the  dishes  rose  and  thick  the  glasses  played !  '* 

Why  what  a  world  it  would  be,  where  "  wishes  were 
horses  and  beggars  might  ride  ; "  a  universal  lubber- 
land,  peopled  by  beggars  on  horseback  riding  after  their 
proverbial  wont !  If  man  lived  he  would  be  a  suckli*ng 
for  ever,  never  attaining  the  dignity  of  stripling.  But 
he  would  not  live,  thus  conditioned  only  by  his  wishes. 
This  suckling  of  caprice,  like  a  kite  without  a  string, 
would  soon  come  to  the  ground,  unwarned  by  any  pain 
tiU  death  finished  him.  A  child  not  conditioned  b}^  its 
parents,  is  a  spoiled  child,  father  and  mother  only  spe- 
cial providences  of  ruin.  A  school  of  children  with  no 
schoolmaster  to  regulate  them  with  "  Thou  shalt,"  and 
"  Thou  shalt  not,"  what  a  hurly-burly  is  it  of  most  un- 
profitable going  which  yet  goes  nowhere !  A  young 
man  suddenly  made  master  of  an  unexpected  fortune, 
and  so  presented  with  the  freedom  of  riches  he  had 
never  won,  is  always  brought  thereby  in  great  peril, 
and  commonly  finds  the  excessive  fortune  a  misfor- 
tune. 

Imagine  men  so  active  that  they  will  toil  all  the 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  301 

time,  and  neither  rest  nor  sleep ;  would  it  be  wise  and 
well  to  leave  them  with  no  possibility  of  pain  to  warn 
them  before  the  frame  lay  there  worn  out  and  dead  ? 
Suppose  they  wrought  by  night  and  not  by  day,  would 
it  be  an  improvement  on  the  present  state  of  things  if 
no  inconvenience  and  no  pain  attended  the  capricious 
violation  of  Nature's  law,  until  death  ended  the  mistake  ? 

Suppose  a  man  worked  at  the  right  time  and  in  the 
right  proportion,  but  worked  wrong,  against  the  nature 
of  things ;  that  he  planted  his  pear-trees  with  the  roots 
up  and  the  branches  down ;  or  set  the  roots  in  husks  of 
corn,  in  straw,  in  dried  moss,  in  the  feathers  of  birds,  or 
the  hair  of  beasts ;  and  made  his  own  bed  out  of  moist 
rich  earth,  every  night  covering  up  his  limbs  in  that. 
Suppose  God  should  alter  the  constitution  of  things  to 
suit  our  man,  so  that  his  accommodating  pear-tree  grew 
and  bore  fruit,  the  roots  up,  the  branches  down,  or  grew 
out  of  husks  and  hay,  hair  and  feathers ;  and  that  his 
body  did  not  suffer  from  sleeping  wrapped  up  in  garden 
mould ;  that  the  pear  and  the  man  changed  beds  ca- 
priciously and  God  made  the  world  accommodate  the 
sUly  whim  :  would  that  be  an  improvement,  better  than 
the  present  rule  —  "  as  you  make  your  bed  so  you  must 
He?" 

What  if  a  man  put  things  to  the  wrong  use  —  mak- 
ing wheaten  bricks  of  the  corn  he  grew,  piling  them 
into  walls  for  his  house,  and  roofing  over  this  paste- 
board palace  with  tiles  of  bread ;  would  it  be  a  misfor- 
tune if  the  next  storm  soaked  through  his  roof  and 
walls,  and  brought  this  whole  mass  of  unleavened 
bread  upon  the  head  of  its  maker  ? 

What  if  he  made  his  bread  of  wood  and  sand  and 
clay,  not  of  corn,  and  God  interfered  with  our  booby 
and  allowed  him  to  suffer  no  pain  for  his  stupidity? 

26 


302  PROVIDENCE. 

Would  that  be  a  good  plan  ?  What  a  school  the  world 
would  be  with  no  regulation  but  the  finite  caprice  of 
each  John  and  Jane  ! 

If  a  man  provides  the  proper  articles  for  food  and 
shelter,  but  gets  them  in  insufficient  quantity,  or  of  a 
quality  which  will  soon  perish,  or  lives  in  a  spot  which 
is  unhealthy ;  would  it  be  well  for  God  to  twist  the 
material  world  so  as  to  accommodate  the  human  folly 
and  let  him  off  with  a  whole  skin  ?  Should  you  think 
the  world  well  made  if  it  altered  to  suit  the  caprice  of 
each  man  in  it ;  and  if  every  whimsey  had  a  universal 
right  of  way  over  all  the  world  —  Nature  a  "  servitude  " 
to  nonsense !  If  a  man  makes  a  cart  to  carry  himself 
and  his  chattels  from  place  to  place,  and  makes  it  ill,  or 
drives  it  badly,  if  it  breaks  down  when  overloaded,  or 
turns  over  when  one  wheel  is  driven  into  a  ditch  and 
the  other  into  the  air,  and  if  the  man  be  hurt  and  his 
goods  spilled  out,  is  there  a  flaw  in  the  world,  think  you, 
because  he  suffers  chagrin  at  the  failure,  and  pain  by 
the  bruise  ?  When  his  carriage,  ill  made,  overladen, 
driven  badly,  was  about  to  overturn,  suppose  its  owner 
prayed  to  all  the  saints  in  heaven,  you  would  not  think 
it  a  kindness  in  the  Infinite  God  to  alter  the  laws  of 
Nature  to  suit  this  ill  conduct  of  a  cart.  Would  you 
have  the  man  turn  out  for  gravitation,  or  have  God 
push  the  planet  to  the  wall  to  let  our  lubber's  cart 
goby? 

A  boy  makes  a  kite  with  a  frame  of  iron,  and  planks 
it  over  with  live-oak.  The  thing  would  sink  in  water ; 
shall  God  alter  the  constitution  of  the  world  and  make 
it  float  in  air  ?  or  leave  the  boy  to  profit  by  his  chagrin, 
and  try  till  he  learns  the  laws  of  Nature  and  makes  a 
kite  to  correspond  ?  If  a  man  gets  displeased  with  this 
planet  and  wishes  to  ride  round  the  sun  in  his  own  gig. 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  303 

is  God  to  pave  the  road  and  furnish  him  a  horse  ? 
Shall  God  give  the  nev^  moon  to  every  baby  who  cries 
for  it  ?  The  girl  pricks  her  fingers  in  learning  to  sew  — 
shall  God  make  the  hand  as  senseless  as  the  needle  to 
spare  little  miss  the  use  of  her  wits  ? 

A  man  sails  the  sea,  he  gets  a  poor  and  leaky  ship, 
ill  moulded,  ill  built,  ill  rigged,  and  overloaded  too, 
manned  and  mastered  badly;  he  takes  no  pains  to  learn 
the  coast  he  sails  from,  or  to  ;  little  care  to  look  out  for 
rocks,  or  shoals,  but  drives  up  towards  land,  all  heed- 
less, in  a  storm  ;.  then,  when  his  crazy  hulk  is  in  immi- 
nent peril,  he  and  his  miserable  crew — all  ignorant  and 
half  drunk  —  for  safety  pray  lustily  to  God.  Is  it  a 
hard  thing  that  he  gets  the  ocean  for  answer ;  that  his 
planks  go  to  pieces  and  he  is  strangled  in  the  deep ;  or 
if  with  much  ado  he  treads  the  waters  under  him  and 
comes  alive  to  land,  has  he  a  right  to  complain  of  hard 
usage  because  the  fatherly  Providence  did  not  empty 
the  waters  out  of  the  sea  to  save  a  foolish  man  the 
trouble  of  thinking  ? 

In  making  the  world,  what  if  God  had  fashioned  it 
so  that  shipwreck  was  impossible ;  that  when  a  vessel 
approached  a  rock,  of  her  own  accord  she  wore  off,  or 
tacked  and  stood  away;  that  it  was  needless  for  the 
mariner  to  study  navigation,  or  seamanship,  or  the  art 
of  building  ships,  but  every  tub  would  sail  perfectly, 
with  any  requisite  speed  and  burthen,  and  find  its  own 
way  to  any  destined  haven  ;  so  that  you  need  only  write 
thereon,  "  Bound  for  London,"  and  put  off  from  land, 
and  the  craft  found  its  way  there  as  surely  as  a  stone 
to  the  bottom  of  a  well  when  dropped  in  at  the  top ; 
that  a  mariner  need  take  no  thought  at  all,  for  God 
tempered  the  wind  to  the  sailor  self-shorn  of  his  wits  I 
Would  that  be  so  good  a  scheme  as  the  present  one 


304  PROVIDENCE. 

which  demands  stout  ships  —  built  with  all  the  art  of 
human  science  to  correspond  with  the  Nature  which 
God  has  made,  —  prudent  masters,  careful  men,  a  com- 
pass in  the  binnacle,  a  chart  and  chronometer  in  the 
cabin,  light-houses  along  the  coast,  scrutinizing  survey- 
ors to  scan  the  heavens,  to  search  the  bosom  of  the  sea 
and  learn  to  trace  the  footsteps  of  the  storm  and  so  be 
served  by  wind  and  tide,  by  star  and  sea  and  land  ? 
The  shipwreck  brings  loss  of  goods  and  loss  of  life,  pain 
to  full  many  a  heart ;  but  you  see  what  all  this  suffering 
means.  If  I,  standing  on  the  shore,  saw  a  vessel  about 
to  go  to  pieces  in  a  storm,  dashed  on  a  rock,  had  I  the 
power,  doubtless  in  my  human  weakness  and  ignorance, 
I  should  rend  the  rock  in  sunder,  or  should  chide  the 
sea,  and  hold  it  back  e'er  it  should  swallow  down  the 
ship,  strangling  such  hopeful  life.  But  at  the  creation 
the  Infinite  God  knew  all  the  powers  of  the  sea,  the 
storm,  the  future  ship,  the  men  therein ;  foreknew  their 
history,  and  doubtless  arranged  all  weU.  For  answer 
to  our  special  prayers  comes  the  eternal  action  of  the 
universal  law.  Thus  we  learn  by  the  elements ;  the 
winds  are  our  ministers,  the  sea  not  only  a  constant 
ferryman,  that  huge  St.  Christopher,  fetching  and  carry- 
ing from  land  to  land,  but  a  teacher  also.  Yea  all 
Nature  is  a  "  Schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ." 

What  sufferings  have  we  seen  of  late  years  on  emi- 
grant ships,  crowded  with  passengers  without  fire,  water, 
or  even  air,  heedless,  iU-fed,  unclean?  What  if  God 
"  intei-posed  "  at  the  prayer  of  some  mortal  and  allowed 
no  man  to  suffer  from  cold,  hunger,  or  ship-fever! 
Would  that  be  better  than  to  leave  man  to  suffer  fill 
the  nations  learned  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  enforced 
them  by  statutes  of  their  own,  and  then  came  safe 
across  the  sea,  not  sick,  not  cold,  not  wet  ?    God  makes 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  305 

the  elements  as  perfect  Cause,  administers  them  as 
perfect  Providence,  and  made  the  mind  of  man  one 
element  whereby  to  work  out  human  welfare.  Shall 
not  that  factor  perform  its  function  ? 

Men  build  iron  roads,  and  put  thereon  a  train  of  iron 
cars,  drawn  by  the  iron  horse.  The  axles  are  iron,  the 
wheels  iron ;  the  friction  is  great,  the  draught  is  diffi- 
cult, the  metal  wears  out.  What  chagrin  of  engineers, 
what  complaint  of  shareholders !  Shall  God,  by  per- 
manent law,  or  fleeting  miracle,  alter  the  constitution 
of  things  to  abate  the  friction ;  or  leave  men  to  study 
the  structure  of  their  own  limbs,  and  make  an  artificial 
cartilage  of  compounded  metals,  and  moisten  it  with 
such  synovial  liquor  as  science  can  devise,  and  so  save 
the  wear  and  tear  of  their  machine?  If  a  stone  gets 
in  the  boy's  shoe,  shall  God  all  at  once  soften  the  stone, 
or  harden  the  foot ;  or  shall  he  leave  the  boy  to  suffer 
till  he  shakes  the  annoyance  from  his  own  shoe  and 
walks  off"  erect  and  easy  ?  If  God  give  adequate  in- 
tellect at  first,  is  he  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  using 
it?  What  a  Providence  that  would  be,  at  cross  pur- 
poses with  itself ! 

Here  is  a  lazy  young  man,  yet  very  exorbitant ;  he 
wants  the  power  of  riches,  the  honor  of  office,  the  en- 
joyment of  high  culture  —  the  distinction  of  aU  the 
three ;  but  he  devotes  himself  only  to  his  moustache,  his 
cigar,  and  his  dress.  Is  it  the  fault  of  Providence  that 
he  continues  a  most  uncomfortable  dunce,  neither  re- 
spected nor  respectable  ;  that  he  is  fnU  of  pain  and 
chagrin,  and  walks  the  street  with  the  air  of  a  dys- 
peptic pirate,  complaining  of  "the  ingratitude  of  re- 
publics "  and  talldng  of  suicide  ?  Would  it  be  a  good 
tiling  if  God  made  money  to  drop  miraculously  into 
his  idle  hands,  crowned  him  with  office,  and  gave  him 

26* 


306  PROVIDENCE. 

the  culture  which  earnest  men  elaborate  so  slow  by  pain- 
ful thought !  Would  it  be  kind  in  fact  to  the  grumbler 
himself?  A  foolish  mother  would  give  him  all  these 
things,  unconditioned  ;  the  dear  God  says,  "  What 
would  you  have  ?  Pay  for  it  and  take  it."  No  spoiled 
children  with  the  Infinite  Mother !  If  Themistocles  feels 
chagrin,  and  cannot  sleep  a-nights  for  thinking  of  the 
trophies  of  Miltiades,  shall  God  come  and  rock  the 
cradle  of  this  great  Athenian  baby ;  or  let  him  lie  awake 
till  he  grows  up  a  great  Athenian  man ! 

Some  men  add  to  their  family  more  than  they  can 
feed,  shall  God  turn  stones  to  bread  to  stop  their 
mouths  ?  It  rains  pottage ;  Esau  will  not  hold  up  his 
dish.  Shall  God  make  rain  come  the  other  way,  to 
please  the  lout?  What  a  world  it  would  soon  be, 
each  hairy  Esau  turning  out  a  whining  clown,  not  a 
valiant  hunter,  the  world  a  fool's  paradise,  where  be- 
twixt man  and  God  it  was  always  "  Hail  fellow !  well 
met." 

K  a  nation  does  not  work,  or  works  wrong,  —  brew- 
ing its  corn  into  beer,  not  baking  it  into  bread,  producing 
rum  and  tobacco,  not  houses  and  cloth  ;  if  it  applies  to 
a  wrong  purpose  its  sea-chariots,  or  land-chariots ;  will 
build  forts  and  not  cities,  breed  soldiers  and  "  nobles," 
not  farmers  and  mechanics,  —  loaf-consumers,  or  de- 
stroyers of  loaves,  not  loaf-makers  —  has  the  nation  a 
right  to  complain  against  God  for  its  want  of  bread  ? 
Or  when  complaining  with  many  prayers,  shall  God 
send  a  miracle  to  feed  the  men,  not  leave  them  to  hun- 
ger till  their  own  hands  stop  their  mouth  ?  If  half  the 
people  are  left  uncared  for  by  the  powerful  class  and 
turn  out  badly,  steal,  rob,  and  murder,  knowing  no  bet- 
ter, have  the  men  who  have  been  careless  a  right  to 
complain  at  the.  result  ?     Nay  when  all  African  Hayti 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  307 

rises  "  in  blackest  insurrection,"  what  right  has  the 
master  to  complain  ? 

Not  long  ago  there  was  a  famine  in  Ireland.  It  was 
thought  a  most  hideous  famine  even  in  that  land  where 
hunger  is  the  constant  condition.  England  kept  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer,  asking  God  to  "  interpose,  and 
withdraw  his  hand  ! "  Ah  me  !  The  prayer  was  sadly 
unwise  and  sounded  irreverent.  Had  the  Father  med- 
dled unwisely  with  his  world?  The  good  God  had 
done  no  wrong ;  his  hand  is  never  out  of  place.  The 
famine  came  in  mercy  to  man ;  England  had  op- 
pressed Ireland,  pushed  the  Irish  to  the  brink  of  ruin, 
and  did  not  seem  to  care  much  how  soon  they  went 
over.  The  Irish  had  not  planted  corn,  nothing  but  the 
potatoe.  And  that  would  decay ;  not  aU  at  once,  but 
little  by  little.  Long  years  ago  the  potatoe  prophesied, 
rising  early  and  warning  men  whether  they  would  hear 
or  forbear :  "  I  am  not  fit  to  be  a  nation's  bread.  If  you 
do  not  learn  the  lesson,  why  I  shall  rot  in  the  ground, 
and  you  will  starve  above  it ! "  That  was  the  word  of 
the  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  his  servant  Potatoe.  No 
prophet  ever  spoke  plainer,  neither  Trojan  Cassandra, 
nor  Elias  the  Tishbite.  He  spoke  to  deaf  ears.  The 
many  were  too  ignorant,  or  feeble ;  the  few  too  idle,  or 
selfish,  to  heed  the  word.  So  after  the  oracle  came  the 
history,  and  then  the  lamentation,  the  fasting  and  the 
prayer.  In  other  lands,  here  in  America,  the  potato 
also  failed,  but  men  died  not  in  consequence  ;  they  had 
bread  to  eat  and  lived  on.  What  did  the  famine  mean  ? 
It  spoke  plainly  as  tongue  could  tell,  "  Grow  more  and 
better  food ;  eat  and  live.  Oh  ye  Irishmen  !  for  why  will 
ye  die  ?  " 

Not  many  centuries  ago  there  was  a  famine  every 
ten  or  twenty  years  in  the  most  refined  nation  of  Eu- 


308  PROVIDENCE. 

rope,  —  there  were  ten  dreadful  famines  in  France  in  a 
single  century.  The  priests  prayed,  and  said  "  the 
world  is  coming  to  an  end.  God  is  angry  because  you 
do  not  come  to  mass,  you  unbelievers,  you !  He  will 
starve  you  to  death  ;  and  then  torture  you  in  hell."  But 
the  prayer  brought  no  bread.  Shall  the  prophet  wait  for 
the  crow  to  feed  him  ?  The  feeding  will  be  of  ravens, 
not  prophets.  Whence  came  the  famine?  Men  had 
fought  each  other  instead  of  conquering  the  forces  of 
Nature ;  had  raised  soldiers,  not  farmers  and  clothiers. 
The  famine  warned  them  of  their  error,  —  a  painful 
warning,  but  the  misery  not  excessive.  It  sowed 
wheat. 

A  little  while  ago  there  came  the  cholera,  scaring  the 
world.  Men  attributed  it  to  the  "  wrath  of  God ; "  beg- 
ged that  dear  Father  "  to  withdraw  his  hand,"  thinking 
him  meddlesome  and  iU-temperedl  Men  had  been 
ignorantly  violating  some  of  the  natural  conditions  of 
bodily  well-being,  nay  of  bodily  existence.  If  we  went 
on  so  we  should  all  perish  and  the  race  die  out.  The 
disease  brought  pain  and  death,  plainly  telling  us  of 
our  mistake  and  our  consequent  danger ;  bidding  us 
avoid  the  special  cause  of  that  mischief.  Would  it 
have  been  well  for  the  Infinite  Providence  to  alter  for 
our  caprice  the  Constitution  of  the  Universe  and  the 
preestablished  harmony  between  Nature  and  the  frame 
of  man  ?  The  public  prayers  changed  not  the  pur- 
poses of  God,  nor  his  motive,  nor  his  means.  But 
the  board  of  health  swept  the  cholera  out  of  many  a 
town. 

Man  is  sick,  he  prays  for  health.  Shall  God  abolish 
the  pain,  or  leave  man  to  find  out  and  remove  the 
causes  of  his  body's  grief  and  seek  medicine  to  palliate 
the  disorder  —  while 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  309 

"  In  every  path 
He  treads  down  that  which  doth  befriend  him 
When  sickness  makes  him  pale  and  wan  ! " 

All  these  forms  of  pain  and  misery  are  clearly  of  a 
remedial  character,  and  come  to  warn  us  of  a  mistake, 
to  drive  us  from  error  before  we  are  ruined.  Without 
the  pain,  we  should  have  been  yet  more  pained.  If 
our  request  could  be  granted  without  the  fulfilment  of 
the  natural  condition  thereof,  it  would  send  leanness 
into  our  souls. 

"  To  have  my  aim ;  and  yet,  to  be 
Further  from  it,  than  when  I  bent  my  bow  — 
To  make  my  hopes,  my  torture  ;  and  the  fee 

Of  all  my  woes  another  woe  — 
Is  in  the  midst  of  delicates  to  need, 
And  e'en  in  Paradise  to  be  a  weed." 

The  pain  we  feel  at  the  premature  death  of  our  asso- 
ciates is  of  the  same  character.  Old  age,  I  take  it,  is 
the  only  natural  death  for  man.  That  we  never  mourn 
at,  nor  regard  as  evil.  My  father,  a  hale  man  of  three- 
score, laid  in  the  ground  his  own  mother,  fourscore  and 
twelve  years  old.  She  went  thither  gladly,  with  no  an- 
guish, no  fear,  with  little  pain  ;  went  as  a  tall  pine  tree 
in  the  woods  comes  to  the  ground  at  the  touch  of  a 
winter  wind,  its  branches  heavy  with  snow,  its  trunk 
feeble,  its  root  sapless,  worn-out,  and  old.  He  shed  no 
tears,  he  was  not  sorry  that  the  shock  of  corn  fully 
ripened  on  earth  was,  in  due  time,  gathered  to  Heaven. 
He  need  not  mourn ;  he  should  not  mourn.  It  was  the 
course  of  Nature  ;  and  the  child  piously  buried  the  ven- 
erable, hoary  head  of  his  mother,  long  knocking  at  the 
gate,  and  asking  to  be  let  through.  But  if  he  lost  a 
child   it   was   a   sad   day,   a  dark  year;  for  the  child 


310  PROVIDENCE. 

perished  immature.  Sadly  in  June  or  July  the  gardener 
sees  his  unripe  apples  scattered  on  the  ground,  disap- 
pointing his  hopes  of  harvest.     But  when 

"  An  apple,  waxing  over  mellow, 
Drops  in  some  autumn  night," 

he  only  rejoices  that  Nature's  ways  come  rounding  to 
their  appropriate  end.  When  the  father  buries  the 
child,  the  mourning  Rachel,  refusing  to  be  comforted, 
shows  there  is  a  mistake  somewhere ;  the  pain  warns 
us  thereof  before  we  all  perish. 

This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  and  the  merciful  use 
of  the  grief  we  feel  at  laying  down  our  dear  ones  im- 
mature, when  these  leaves  of  our  tree  are  shattered 
"  before  the  mellowing  year."  At  the  present  day  such 
is  the  state  of  medical  science  that  the  Doctors  of  Med- 
icine know  almost  as  little  of  man's  body  as  the  Doc- 
tors of  Divinity  know  of  his  spirit.  Between  disease 
and  the  doctor  there  is  a  wall,  thick  and  high,  with  here 
and  there  a  loophole  which  some  scientific  man  has 
made.  Men  look  through  and  see  dimly  in  spots ;  and 
pass  through  some  medicines  and  advice,  to  palliate 
the  mischief  a  little.  The  pain  we  feel  when  our  friends 
die  an  unnatural  death ;  our  own  reluctance  to  depart 

—  life's  duties  not  half  done,  nor  half  its  joys  possessed ; 

—  the  sympathy  which  all  men  feel  with  those  that 
suffer  thus,  making  another's  misery  our  own,  —  these 
drive  us  to  break  down  that  wall,  to  cure  the  disease,  to 
learn  the  law  of  health,  that  all  may  ride  in  sound 
bodies  the  stage  of  mortal  life,  check  the  steeds  at  the 
proper  bound,  dismount  from  the  flesh,  and  continue 
our  journey  in  such  other  chariot  as  God  provides  for 
the  ascension. 

A  child  plays  on  the  edge  of  a  rock ;  the   mother 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  311 

creeps  up  stealthily,  and  suddenly  plucks  away  the  ro- 
mantic boy  loving  to  look  down  into  the  deep  darkness. 
Pain  comes  on  the  same  motherly  errand.  Shall  God 
let  us  fall  in,  not  warned  of  the  pit  ? 

The  terrible  diseases  which  sweep  off  half  the  human 
race  before  they  count  three  summers  and  those  which 
decimate  the  ranks  of  adult  men,  are  a  warning  to  man- 
kind showing  that  we  live  unwisely  yet.  The  result 
of  the  pain  we  suffer  is  a  continual  effort  to  live  wiser, 
better,  longer,  and  so  the  term  of  human  life  contin- 
lally  grows  more  and  more. 

All  the  pain  and  misery  of  the  character  thus  far 
spoken  of,  are  plainly  medical  and  benevolent.  If  it 
did  not  hurt  the  hands  to  burn,  or  freeze  them,  who  of 
us  would  grow  up  with  a  finger  ?  If  feet  did  not  smart 
with  abuse,  they  would  be  treated  as  shoes,  worn  out  in 
childhood,  and  no  hardy  boy  would  have  a  foot  left. 
If  broken  teeth  did  not  ache,  so  long  as  walnuts  have  a 
shell,  no  child  would  be  safe  ;  the  world  would  be  full 
of  toothless  striplings.  The  pain  of  poverty  and  want, 
of  ignorance,  of  disappointed  ambition,  of  affections 
bereaved  or  disappointed  in  a  sadder  sort ;  of  the  acci- 
dents to  individuals  by  flood  and  field,  to  nations  by 
war ;  of  the  diseases  which  prey  upon  mankind  —  Ihe 
rats  and  mice  of  the  world's  housekeeping,  —  it  all  has 
this  meaning  and  this  use.  See  with  what  scorpion 
whips  Poverty  drives  the  Irishmen  out  of  Ireland ;  and 
pursues  them  in  America,  forcing  them  to  work  and 
think.  The  American  beggar  hears  the  lash  which 
once  he  felt,  and  avoids  the  blow.  In  half  a  century  we 
shall  see  the  result  —  the  Irishmen  will  be  also  indus- 
trious, thoughtful,  well-fed,  well-clad.  Men  run  trains 
of  railroad   cars   together,  or  attempt  to   pass  a  river 


312  PROVIDENCE. 

when  the  drawbridge  is  up  ;  and  there  is  the  wreck  of 
matter  and  the  crush  of  men.  The  remedy  for  the  pain 
is  at  hand.  The  great  annual  destruction  of  human 
life  in  America,  by  the  carelessness  of  men  who  control 
the  land  and  water  carriages  wherein  the  public  ride,  is 
a  warning  against  our  folly ;  the  evil  perfectly  within 
our  own  control.  All  these  things  must  needs  have 
been  foreseen.  The  attendant  pain  is  the  perpetual 
check  on  human  caprice,  the  constant  of  Nature  which 
controls  our  variable  whim. 

See  how  pain  occasioned  by  loss  of  friends,  with  the 
wide  sympathy  it  calls  out,  forces  us  to  study  the  laws 
of  health,  to  cure  the  sick,  to  keep  men  sound.  Famine 
makes  men  creative  to  produce,  and  prudent  to  spare. 
The  cholera  teaches  temperance  and  cleanliness,  which 
once  the  plague  bid  mankind  learn.  Every  case  of 
typhoid  warns  us  of  broken  law ;  a  shipwreck  rings  the 
bell  to  notify  us  to  have  stouter  vessels,  or  have  them 
better  sailed,  with  fitter  apparatus  on  board,  and  better 
beacons  on  the  coast.  If  men  are  too  indolent,  and 
will  not  rule  themselves,  the  tyrant  binds  on  his  burdens, 
which  grow  more  and  more  difficult  to  be  borne.  The 
suffering  from  bad  political  institutions  in  Naples,  Spain, 
Hungary,  and  all  the  world,  is  not  more  than  sufficient 
to  warn  mankind,  to  make  them  seek  out  and  avoid  the 
cause  of  smart.  A  nation  like  a  man,  shivers  long  at 
night,  before  it  gets  courage  to  rise,  to  hew  wood,  to 
build  a  fire  and  so  be  warm  again.  Is  the  pain  of 
Europe  at  this  day  too  great  for  this  end  ?  The  frost 
does  not  yet  bite  sharp  enough  to  wake  mankind  from 
savage  sleep.  Before  us  Pain,  a  flitting  messenger, 
hurries  to  warn  us ;  behind  stands  Misery  to  drive. 
But  the  one  warms  us  from  our  bale  ;  the  other  drives 
us  to  our  bliss. 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  313 

If  we  pursue  the  inductive  course  as  far  as  we  can 
see,  and  then  follow  the  way  of  deduction  from  the 
Idea  of  the  Infinite  God,  to  this  conclusion  must  we 
come  at  last  —  that  the  present  physical  pain  and 
misery  in  the  world  of  animals  and  men  is  not  an 
Absolute  Evil ;  quite  far  from  it,  it  is  a  partial  Good ; 
that  it  is  disciplinary,  preparing  us  for  the  Ultimate  and 
Absolute  Good. 

But  after  all  this  is  clearly  made  out,  it  must  still  be 
confessed  that  there  are  millions  of  men  who  from  no 
conscious  evil  of  their  own  suffer  a  great  deal  of  mis- 
ery, and  pass  out  of  life  apparently  unrecompensed  ;  — 
the  men  who  are  cut  off  in  early  life,  tortured  by  dis- 
ease, stung  by  poverty,  sacrificed  to  the  purposes  of  the 
race,  and  leave  their  lesson  to  others ;  men  disappointed 
in  their  tenderest  affections;  those  whose  hearts  are  so 
sadly  bereaved  that  they  go  mourning  all  their  days. 
For  the  negative,  or  positive,  evil  they  suffer  here,  the 
only  adequate  compensation  must  come  in  another 
state  of  being,  beyond  the  grave.  I  know  not  the 
means,  no  man  knows ;  perhaps  no  man  can  ever  know 
in  this  life.  But  as  God  is  Infinite ;  and  creates  all 
from  a  perfect  motive,  of  perfect  material,  for  a  perfect 
purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto,  it  is  absolutely 
certain  that  the  ultimate  welfare  of  each  animal  or 
human  creature  must  at  last  be  made  sure.  This  does 
not  follow  from  any  of  the  finite  conceptions  of  Deity — 
from  Jupiter  or  Zeus,  from  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old 
Testament,  or  the  God  of  the  popular  theology ;  but  it 
follows  unavoidably  from  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God. 
As  a  fluent  point  generates  a  line,  so  the  Infinite  God 
generates  blessedness,  and  ever  blessedness,  and  only 
blessedness.     So  aU  the  pain  and  misery  God's  crea- 

27 


314  PROVIDENCE. 

tnres  suffer,  must  one  day  be  abundantly  repaid.  It 
was  all  foreseen  and  provided  for  by  him 

"  Who  is  of  all  Creator  and  Defence." 

as  a  part  of  his  scheme,  here  a  resultant  of  necessi- 
tated force,  there  the  contingent  of  individual  freedom 
acting  in  contact  with  other  forces.  But  in  both  cases 
must  it  be  perfectly  provided  for.  This  is  as  certain  as 
that  one  and  one  make  two.  For  as  the  last  conclusion 
of  a  geometric  demonstration  follows  unavoidably  from 
the  axioms  of  mathematic  science  and  the  data  of  the 
problem,  so  ultimate,  complete,  and  perfect  Welfare  fol- 
lows from  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  God.  He  has 
made  pain  and  misery  part  of  the  discipline  of  this  life ; 
it  must  have  been  in  infinite  benevolence  that  he  did  so. 
Mankind  is  doubtless  saved  by  present  suffering  from 
suffering  worse.  Not  by  the  pains  of  Jesus,  but  its 
own  is  mankind  saved.  Our  own  pain  and  misery  are 
educational  discipline ;  if  the  roots  of  culture  be  bitter, 
doubtless  the  blossom  wiU  be  fair  and  fragrant,  and  the 
final  fruit  sweet  to  our  soul.  The  pain  and  misery 
which  others  suffer  from  ignorance,  and  causes  beyond 
their  own  control,  help  teach  us  charity ;  the  time,  the 
means,  the  effort  we  expend  in  their  behalf  is  often 
so  much  devoted  to  our  highest  culture,  —  the  educa- 
tion of  Conscience,  of  the  Affections,  yea,  of  the  Soul 
which  by  nature  turns  to  God. 


Now  then  where  is  the  Absolute  Evil  of  Pain  and 
Misery  of  this  character  ?  There  is  none  such !  Two 
angels,  archangels  if  men  will  name  them  such  — 
Gabriel  and  Michael,  —  come  to  warn  us ;  not  excep- 
tions to  God's  Providence,  ministers  thereof,  they  come 


THE    ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  315 

to  man  and  bird  and  beast,  on  the  same  errand  of  be- 
nevolence —  to  warn  us  of  a  mistake  ;  not  angels  with 
a  flaming  sword  turning  every  way  to  keep  us  from  the 
Tree  of  Life;  angels  they  are  who  walk  between  us 
and  the  Tree  of  Death  to  keep  man  from  the  Upas  of 
ruin. 

K  the  universe  were  to  end  to-day,  it  would  seem  a 
failure,  for  now  only  the  spring-time  of  the  world's  long 
year  is  present,  and  man  goes  forth,  ignorant  and  weep- 
ing, and  with  pain  scatters  seeds  which  one  day,  all  and 
each,  are  to  bear  manifold  the  bounteous  harvest  of  im- 
mortal joy.  But  all  around  us  seems  made  for  stable 
duration,  and  is  auspicious  of  a  glorious  future  for 
mankind  on  earth.  The  coldest  of  men  feel  deeply 
and  by  instinctive  nature,  that  the  misery  of  the  world 
is  only  a  pain,  of  growth  not  of  decay. 

"  Slight  symptoms  these ;  but  shepherds  know 
How  hot  the  mid-day  sun  shall  glow 
From  the  mists  of  morning  sky." 

I  have  often  asked  you  to  notice  how  the  material 
forces  of  Nature  work  together,  how  wisely  they  are 
distributed ;  how  beautiful  are  its  statical  and  dynami- 
cal laws ;  how  wonderfully  Centripetal  and  Centrifugal, 
those  two  strong  horses  of  the  Almighty,  sweep  this 
earthly  chariot  through  the  sky ;  how  chemical  and  vital 
forces  serve  the  economy  of  the  Universe,  and  how  the 
minimum  of  means  produces  the  maximum  of  end 
therein.  Yet  even  there,  in  Nature,  we  see  but  little  of 
the  whole,  and  know  but  little  of  what  we  see.  Things 
yet  uncomprehended  continually  appear.  It  is  but 
a  single  page  in  Nature's  book  we  have  learned  to 
read.  ♦ 

So  far  as  human  science  reaches  it  is  plain  that  the 


316  PROVIDENCE. 

sensibility  to  suffering  is  distributed  with  the  same  wis- 
dom as  the  organic  forces  of  the  world ;  that  Pain  and 
Pleasure  have  each  their  calculated  work  to  do,  both 
foreknown  at  creation,  and  eternally  provided  for.  In 
this  vast  and  much  entangled  labyrinth  of  living  things 
it  is  more  difficult  to  see  our  way  than  among  the 
material  elements, 

"  —  the  eldest  birth 
Of  Nature's  womb,  that  in  quaternion  run 
Perpetual  circle,  multiform,  and  mix 
And  nourish  all  things." 

But  when  we  see  the  whole  we  recognize  the  bountiful 
benevolence  of  God,  Bacon  devised  his  New  Instru- 
ment for  human  thought,  the  Novum  Organum  of  phys- 
ical science ;  Newton  wrote  out  in  mathematic  poetry 
the  Principia  of  the  Universe,  the  laws  that  govern 
quantity  in  space ;  La  Place  yet  more  magnificently  set 
forth  the  fair  Mechanics  of  the  Sky,  the  mathematic 
laws  of  the  heavenly  machine,  of  whose  composite 
forces  Beauty  and  Harmony  are  the  perpetual  result; 
Von  Humboldt  —  laborious  still,  grown  old  in  being 
taught  and  teaching,  his  mind  youthful  with  all  the 
scientific  riches  of  the  world  swept  into  the  German 
Ocean  of  his  long  living  consciousness, — groups  into  a 
harmonious  whole  this  Kosmos  of  material  force,  paint- 
ing in  words  the  Universe,  this  majestic,  Amazonian 
Flower  of  God  floating  upon  the  sea  of  space.  And 
what  a  world  of  harmonious  beauty  it  is,  as  seen  by 
the  material  eye  and  then  reflected  in  the  educated 
mind  of  these  philosophers ! 

But  when  some  man,  with  mind  greater  than  the 
greatest  of  these,  shall  gather  into  his  more  affluent 
consciousness  a  corresponding  knowledge  of  the  world 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  317 

of  animals  and  men ;  shall  devise  the  New  Instrument 
of  a  higher  science;  write  in  more  than  mathematic 
poetry  the  Principia  of  this  sensitive  universe,  the  Laws 
that  govern  Life  in  time  and  space,  magnificently  set- 
ting forth  the  fair  Mechanics  of  the  Vital  World,  its 
Metaphysic  Laws,  whose  ultimate  resultant  is  lovelier 
Beauty  and  Harmony  of  a  yet  more  sweet  accord ;  and 
grouping  to  a  harmonious  whole  this  other  Kosmos  of 
vital  and  personal  forces,  painting  in  words  this  white, 
Amazonian  Lily  of  Human  Life  floating  on  the  river 
of  God  —  why,  what  a  wealth  of  wisdom,  of  justice,  of 
love  and  holiness  will  it  not  reveal  in  the  Infinite  Father 
and  Mother  of  all  that  are !  Then  by  the  inductive 
mode  alone,  without  deduction  from  the  idea  of  God, 
but  only  by  the  study  of  facts  and  history,  shaU  men 
prove,  what  I  can  only  postulate,  the  perfect  workman- 
ship of  God. 

In  the  pain  and  suffering  of  mankind,  and  of  our 
feebler  attendants,  I  see  the  promise  of  a  glorious  future 
for  mankind.  I  know  there  is  a  recompense  for  every 
sparrow  robbed  of  her  young,  or  prematurely  falling  to 
the  ground ;  that  the  infinite  Herdsman  of  the  universe 
takes  thought  for  oxen,  and  is  a  perfect  Providence  for 
the  individual  and  for  all  mankind.  The  history  of  the 
world  is  indeed  the  judgment  thereof,  but  not  the  final ; 
and  what  it  bears  off  unrewarded  it  carries  to  the  great 
ocean  of  Eternity,  where  exact  justice  shaU  be  done  in 
love  to  every  creature  of  the  dear,  eternal  God. 

27* 


SERMON   X. 

OF  PROVIDENCE  —  THE  ECONOMY  OF  MORAL  ERROR. 

(319) 


ECCLESIASTICUS   XLII.  24. 

HE    HATH    MADE    NOTHING    IMPERFECT, 


(320V 


X. 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  MORAL  ERROR  UNDER  THE 
UNIVERSAL  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD. 


Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  one  fonn  of  Evil,  of  the 
physical  Pain  and  Misery  in  the  World  of  Animals 
and  Men,  which  come  from  violating  the  physical  con- 
ditions of  welfare;  designing  to  show  the  Function 
and  Economy  thereof  in  the  Providence  of  God.  To- 
day I  wish  to  speak  of  the  other  form  of  Evil,  of  the 
Pain  and  Misery  which  comes  from  violating  other  con- 
ditions of  welfare ;  of  Moral  Error  and  Sin,  with  their 
consequences ;  designing  to  show  the  Function  and 
Economy  thereof  in  the  Providence  of  God.  The  two 
departments  of  inquiry  are  lands,  lying  side  by  side,  in- 
distinctly separated,  locking  into  each  other  by  many 
plies  and  folds,  so  that  the  stream  which  rises  in  one 
runs  into  the  other,  and  it  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossi- 
ble, in  all  cases  to  say  where  one  begins  and  the  other 
ends,  so  indistinct  are  the  boundaries.  In  both  these 
sermons  I  often  cross  the  Knes. 

In  Theological  Ethics  there  are  some  broad  distinc- 
tions of  things,  marked  by  corresponding  distinctions 
of  language,  which  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind.     Here 

(321) 


322  PKOVIDENCE. 

are  some  of  the  terms  I  shall  use  in  a  technical  sense  in 
this  sermon. 

A  mistake  is  the  violation  of  some  Rule  of  Correct- 
ness, or  of  Expediency.  To  do  inexpediently  is  a  mis- 
take. It  produces  an  experiment  which  fails,  because 
the  calculation  on  which  it  is  founded  is  incorrect.  Jehu 
would  go  from  Bethany  to  Jerusalem ;  he  misconceives 
the  way,  takes  the  wrong  road,  comes  out  at  Bethlehem 
instead  and  loses  his  journey. 

A  mistake  has  its  origin  in  an  intellectual  deficiency, 
a  lack  of  knowledge.  It  may  be  a  lack  of  knowledge 
in  general  —  Jehu  never  knew  the  way  from  Bethany  to 
Jerusalem  ;  or  a  lack  of  knowledge  at  that  special 
time  —  he  had  forgotten,  he  had  not  his  wits  about 
him,  he  did  not  take  heed  to  his  ways,  and  so  he  lost 
his  journey.  It  may  come  from  a  lack  of  general  intel- 
lectual power.  Thus  a  fool  mistakes  stones  for  bread. 
There  are  men  of  weak  minds,  who  do  not  discern 
clearly  by  their  intellect ;  or  whose  intellectual  percep- 
tions do  not  much  influence  their  wiU  and  their  con- 
duct, —  simpletons,  idiots,  fools,  in  respect  to  power  of 
mind,  they  often  make  mistakes  through  lack  of  wit. 

Mistakes  of  this  sort  are  often  called  Errors ;  and  so 
men  speak  of  "  errors  of  the  press,"  "  errors  of  longi- 
tude," "  errors  of  calculation,"  and  the  like.  In  such 
cases  in  this  sermon,  I  will  use  the  word  Mistake,  to 
reserve  the  term  "  Error  "  for  another  and  strictly  tech- 
nical use. 

An  Error  is  the  unconscious  and  involuntary  viola- 
tion of  some  Rule  of  Right,  of  the  Moral  Law  of  God. 
It  is  to  the  Conscience  what  a  mistake  is  to  the  intel- 
lect—  it  is  a  moral  mistake,  as  a  mistake  is  an  intel- 
lectual error.     To  do  unjustly  is  an  Error,  as  to  do  in- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  323 

expediently  is  a  Mistake.  One  violates  the  Rule  of 
Right,  the  other  the  Rule  of  Expediency.  Every  Error 
is  also  a  mistake,  for  what  is  really  wrong  is  always  par- 
tially and  ultimately  inexpedient ;  but  every  Mistake  is 
not  also  an  Error.  Jehu  did  no  moral  wrong  by  mis- 
taking the  high  road  to  Bethlehem  for  that  to  Jerusalem. 

Here  is  an  example  of  Error :  the  ill-bred  boys  steal 
apples  from  Ahab's  garden;  to  correct  them  he  shuts 
the  offenders  up  in  jail  with  old  and  accomplished 
rogues,  where  they  grow  worse  "  by  their  confinement ; 
the  well-meant  correction  wrongs  and  worsens  the  boys. 
He  has  violated  a  moral  law  of  God,  the  natural  rule  of 
right,  seeking  to  overcome  the  evil  in  them  by  another 
evil  out  of  them,  setting  his  vengeance  against  their 
trespass.  But  he  did  this  unconsciously  and  involun- 
tarily :  he  did  not  know  there  was  such  a  natural  law ; 
he  had  no  intention  of  doing  wrong ;  he  knew  no  better 
way  to  guard  his  orchard  and  correct  the  young  ma- 
rauders. 

Error  comes  from  deficiency  of  moral  power  —  gen- 
eral, or  special,  from  a  lack  of  moral  knowledge  :  Ahab 
never  knew  the  Rule  of  Right  which  applies  to  such 
cases,  that  justice  is  the  medicine  for  injustice,  love  for 
hate,  and  good  for  evil ;  or  he  had  forgotten,  and  did 
not  recollect  it  at  the  time ;  or,  if  he  did,  his  general 
human  conscience  was  borne  down  by  his  special  and 
particular  sense  of  the  loss ;  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as 
if  he  had  never  known  any  better.  There  are  men  of 
weak  conscience  —  such  as  do  not  discern  morally,  or 
whose  moral  perceptions  do  not  much  influence  their 
will,  —  moral  simpletons,  moral  idiots,  moral  fools. 
They  often  commit  Errors,  as  feeble  children  stumble, 
and  mouths  ill-formed  stammer  and  cannot  talk. 


324  PROVIDENCE. 

A  Crime  is  a  Violation  of  some  Human  Statute  — 
some  positive  rule  of  conduct  laid  down  by  the  govern- 
ment. To  do  illegally  is  a  crime.  Thus  it  is  a  crime 
in  Boston  to  drive  a  wagon  on  the  left  hand  side  of  the 
street,  in  Berlin  on  the  right  hand  side.  In  the  District 
of  Columbia  it  is  a  crime  to  harbor  or  conceal  a  slave 
who  has  run  away  from  one  of  the  Barbary  States  of 
America ;  in  the  District  of  Tunis  it  is  a  crime  not  to 
harbor  and  conceal  a  slave  who  has  run  away  from  one 
of  the  Barbary  States  of  Africa.  In  Boston  it  is  a 
crime  to  take  a  white  dollar  which  is  not  yours  and  ap- 
propriate it  to  your  use,  and  the  man  who  does  this  is 
put  in  jail ;  while  it  is  no  crime,  but  a  legal  service,  to 
take  this  black  man,  who  belongs  not  to  you,  but  to 
himself,  and  appropriate  him  to  your  use.  The  man 
who  does  such  deeds  is  held  in  social  and  ecclesiastical 
honor.  Christianity  is  a  crime  at  Constantinople,  Mo- 
hammedanism at  Rome,  and  effective  humanity  shown 
to  a  black  woman  escaping  from  her  "  owner  "  in  Car- 
olina, is  a  crime  in  Boston.  To  help  Shadrach  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  man-stealers  of  Boston  was  the  highest 
crime  known  to  American  law ;  it  was  "  levying  war," 
treason,  liable  to  be  punished  with  death  ;  in  Halifax  it 
would  be  the  fulfilment  of  the  golden  rule  and  rendering 
a  service  unto  Jesus  Christ.  To  protect  Ellen  Craft 
while  kidnappers  were  clutching  at  her  life,  was  a  crime 
in  New  England ;  in  old  England  it  is  an  honor.  If  a 
man  in  this  city  should  seize  and  force  into  bondage 
Cuban  negroes  escaping  hither  from  a  monarchic  fetter, 
he  would  commit  a  crime :  but  there  are  persons  here 
whose  official  and  legal  function  it  is  to  seize  and  force 
into  bondage  American  negroes,  escaping  hither  from  a 
democratic  fetter ;  commissioned  for  that  very  purpose. 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  325 

To  kill  an  unoffending  man  for  your  own  personal  pleas- 
ure or  profit  in  Massachusetts,  is  a  crime ;  in  New 
Zealand  it  is  a  matter  of  common  practice.  The  pro- 
fessional man-butcher  has  a  legal  existence  in  New 
Zealand,  I  am  told,  as  much  as  the  professional  man- 
stealer  in  Boston.  It  is  a  crime  to  resist  either  in  his 
local  function. 

A  Crime  may  be  a  mistake ;  or  it  may  be  an  error, 
for  the  human  statute  violated  may  represent  the  nat- 
ural rule  of  expediency,  or  of  right :  or  it  may  be  nei- 
ther an  error,  nor  a  mistake  ;  for  the  human  statute  vio- 
lated, may  itself  be  both  inexpedient  and  unjust  as  in 
the  acts  establishing  the  man-butcher  at  New  Zealand 
and  the  man-stealer  at  Boston.  It  is  no  function  of  the 
official  executors  of  the  statute  to  inquire  whether  it 
corresponds  to  the  Rule  of  Right.  The  judge  and  the 
hangman  are  to  be  just  as  active  in  punishing  a  man 
for  rescuing  Shadrach  from  the  kidnappers,  as  in  pun- 
ishing the  worst  of  pirates,  red  all  over  with  human 
blood ;  for  such  officers  are  of  law,  not  Justice,  and  a 
crime  is  an  Offence  against  Law  whether  just  or  un- 
just. 

A  Sin  is  a  conscious  and  voluntary  or  wilful  violation 
of  a  known  law  of  God.  To  do  wickedly  is  a  Sin. 
This  does  not  come  from  lack  of  intellectual  perception, 
nor  from  lack  of  moral  perception ;  but  from  an  unwil- 
lingness to  do  the  known  Right,  and  a  willingness  to  do 
the  known  Wrong.  It  comes  from  some  other  defi- 
ciency, a  compound  deficiency  —  from  lack  of  affec- 
tional  power,  or  of  religious  power,  or  from  a  perverse 
will. 

Here  is  an  example:  Henry  honestly  owes  John  a 
talent  of  gold,  and  can  pay  him,  but  wiU  not,  though 

28 


326  PROVIDENCE. 

John  needs  the  money.  The  Non-payment  is  a  nega- 
tive Sin.  William  knows  it  is  naturally  wrong  to  steal, 
he  is  rich  and  has  no  material  occasion  to  make  stealing 
excusable,  but  he  robs  Dorcas,  a  poor  unprotected  seam- 
stress.    The  Theft  is  a  positive  Sin. 

Sin  is  a  violation  of  the  Rule  of  Eight ;  and  so  is 
distinguished  from  a  Mistake.  It  is  conscious  and  vol- 
untary ;  and  so  is  distinguished  from  an  Error.  It  is  a 
violation  of  a  Natural  Law  of  God  ;  and  is  thus  distin- 
guished from  a  Crime. 

I  might  discriminate  a  little  more  nicely  and  make  a 
distinction  between  a  Subjective  Sin  —  which  is  a  con- 
scious violation  of  what  is  thought  to  be  a  natural  law, 
but  is  not ;  and  an  Objective  Sin,  a  conscious  violation 
of  what  is  a  natural  law.  In  each  case  the  integrity  of 
consciousness  is  disturbed. 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  terms. 

There  may  be  various  Degrees  of  Error  and  of  Sin. 
It  is  not  easy  to  say  where  one  begins  and  the  other 
ends ;  for  in  ethics  as  in  all  science,  it  is  not  easy  to 
distinguish  things  by  their  circumferences,  where  they 
blend,  but  only  by  their  centres,  where  the  difference  is 
most  clearly  marked. 

It  is  sometimes  said  there  can  be  no  such  Error,  or 
Sin,  as  I  speak  of.  This  is  one  doctrine  of  that  pan- 
theistic scheme,  before  mentioned,  which  appears  in  so 
many  forms  and  under  such  antagonistic  names.  A 
natural  law  of  God,  it  is  asserted,  can  no  more  be  vio- 
lated, consciously  or  unconsciously,  by  man  than  by 
matter.  A  Sin,  therefore  —  in  the  meaning  just  affixed 
to  that  word  —  is  as  impossible  as  a  solar  eclipse  at  the 
time  of  full  moon ;  or  as  a  straight  line  which  is  not  the 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  327 

shortest  distance  between  two  points  ;  it  is  the  law  of 
God,  and  so  the  will  of  God  that  Wniiam  should  rob 
the  seamstress,  Henry  neglect  to  pay  John,  and  Ahab 
clap  the  boys  into  jail  for  pilfering  his  apples. 

The  distinction  between  the  normahty  of  matter  and 
the  normality  of  man,  if  not  obvious,  is  yet  clear 
enough.  In  physical  science  we  learn  the  law  of  mat- 
ter by  seeing  what  is  done  ;  it  is  derived  from  facts  of 
observation  ;  by  a  natural  intellectual  process,  from  all 
the  facts  we  know  we  gather  the  Law  of  the  Facts,  that 
is,  the  Natural  Mode  of  Operation  of  the  material  forces 
we  study.  Thus  we  know  the  law  by  seeing  its  ob- 
servance ;  know  it  to  be  binding  by  seeing  things  bound 
by  it,  as  far  as  we  see  at  all.  It  is  found  solely  by  the 
inductive  process,  by  observation  and  demonstration. 
It  is  an  Idea  which,  so  to  say,  rests  always  on  two  pil- 
lars of  fact,  —  Facts  of  Observation,  Facts  of  Demon- 
stration. There  is  no  actual  exception  to  the  general 
law ;  a  single  contrary  fact  would  show  us  there  was 
no  such  law  as  we  supposed.  In  Nature  the  ideal  and 
the  actual  are  the  same,  —  the  ideal  law  and  the  actual 
fact.  This  is  true  in  mathematics,  true  also  in  physics. 
Theory  and  practice  are  identical. 

In  ethical  science,  we  learn  the  law  of  human  nature 
—  that  is  the  Natural  Mode  of  Operation  of  the  human 
forces  in  Thomas,  or  in  mankind — not  by  observation 
and  demonstration,  but  by  an  intuition  of  conscious- 
ness. The  law  is  not  a  fact  of  observation  or  demon- 
stration, but  of  consciousness.  It  is  just  as  much  a 
law  of  human  nature  if  Ahab,  Henry,  and  William 
have  violated  it  all  their  lives,  as  if  they  had  consciously 
compHed  therewith.  If  we  merely  take  aU  the  facts  of 
observation  made  upon  man  and  thence  induce  a  law, 
we  can  only  see  what  has  worked  well  hitherto,  and  get 


328  PROVIDENCE. 

an  empirical  knowledge  of  the  expedient  in  time  past ; 
the  conclusion  represents  the  facts  of  human  history, 
not  the  facts  of  human  nature  ;  it  applies,  at  best,  only 
to  those  faculties  aheady  developed  and  enjoyed,  not 
to  those  others  yet  undeveloped.  And  of  course  our 
scheme  of  ethics  will  have  the  imperfections  which  be- 
long to  the  persons  or  actions,  who  furnish  us  the  facts. 
The  Ideal  will  not  transcend  the  Actual,  but  be  identi- 
cal with  it.  Man  has  uniformly  exploitered  woman ; 
the  government,  the  people ;  the  strong,  the  weak ;  "  it 
is  the  natural  ethical  law  of  human  nature  that  this 
should  be  so."  That  would  be  a  fair  conclusion  from 
this  mode  of  procedure.  Indeed  the  atheist  —  who 
studies  man  in  this  way,  —  teUs  us  it  is  so  ;  the  consist- 
ent popular  theologian,  who  follows  the  same  course, 
assures  us  that  we  can  get  nothing  better  from  "  the 
light  of  Nature  ; "  that  all  higher  ethics  come  only  of 
"  miraculous  revelation." 

But  by  attending  to  the  facts  of  consciousness,  to  the 
moral  instincts  ;  and  by  the  direct  action  of  the  moral 
faculties  which  do  not  follow,  but  anticipate,  experi- 
ence, we  learn  from  human  nature,  not  merely  from  hu- 
man history.  Thus  we  get  knowledge  of  a  law  of  hu- 
man nature  which  is  an  Ideal  of  Consciousness,  though 
not  yet  the  actual  of  experience.  It  is  in  a  great  meas- 
ure a  matter  of  will  whether  we  follow  this  law  and 
realize  this  ideal  or  not.  It  is  our  duty  to  obey  this 
ideal  law  when  we  know  it ;  consciously  and  wilfully 
to  violate  it  is  Sin. 

Philosophically  to  deny  the  possibility  of  this  kind  of 
Error  and  of  Sin,  you  must  deny  either  that  there  is 
any  difference  between  Right  and  Wrong ;  or  else  that 
man  has  any  Freedom  to  choose  between  them.  Some 
men  have  denied  each  ;  but  it  appears  to  me  that  both 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  329 

are  facts  of  consciousness.  I  feel  conscious  of  a  differ- 
ence and  antagonism  between  Right  and  Wrong  ;  that 
is  an  ultimate  fact  of  consciousness.  The  greater  part 
of  mankind  feel  the  same  thing,  and  have  words  to  ex- 
press that  fact.  I  feel  conscious  of  freedom,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent ;  that  also  is  an  ultimate  fact  of  conscious- 
ness. The  greater  part  of  mankind  feel  the  same  thing. 
In  a  matter  of  this  sort  my  own  consciousness  is  of  the 
utmost  value  to  me ;  the  opinion  of  the  human  race  has 
much  weight,  for  this  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  man- 
kind is  a  good  judge. 


Now,  much  of  the  Pain  and  Misery  in  the  world  of 
man  comes  from  a  violation  of  the  moral  laws  of  Na- 
ture, from  Error  and  Sin.  Can  this  evil  be  reconciled 
with  the  Providence  of  the  Infinite  God ;  or  is  it  an 
Absolute  Evil  ?  Let  us  first  look  at  Error,  then  at  Sin, 
at  each  with  its  consequences. 

In  treating  of  the  misery  which  comes  therefrom,  I 
will  speak  of  it  first,  on  a  large  scale  —  in  its  Political 
Form,  of  the  Errors  men  make  in  their  Civil  Govern- 
ment. 

The  natural  moral  law,  in  its  political  operation, 
requires  that  in  the  State  there  shaU  be  complete  and 
perfect  National  Unity  of  Action, —  the  nation  being 
as  complete  a  whole  as  a  man's  body,  —  that  is  neces- 
sary for  ali)  that  there  may  be  a  complete  Whole ;  and 
a  complete  and  perfect  Individual  Variety  of  Action  — 
each  man  doing  just  what  he  is  fittest  to  do  and  can 
do  best,  —  that  is  necessary  for  each  man,  that  he  may 
be  a  complete  person,  with  free  spiritual  individuality, 
as  free  and  independent  in  the  State,  as  my  hand  and 

28* 


330  PROVIDENCE. 

feet  are  in  the  body,  and  as  much  in  his  proper  place 
and  about  his  proper  function.  By  this  means  there 
will  be  a  combination  of  efforts,  but  a  distribution  of 
functions ;  national  unity  of  end  and  design  with  per- 
sonal diversity  of  means  thereto.  The  centripetal  power, 
the  Government,  and  the  centrifugal  power,  the  Indi- 
vidual, will  be  combined  into  a  cosmic  harmony  like 
that  "  which  doth  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong." 

This  is  the  ethic  ideal  of  a  State,  the  political  tool 
necessary  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.  Nothing  short 
of  that  with  its  industrial  and  economical  contrivances, 
will  allow  the  individual  all  his  natural  and  unalienable 
rights,  and  enable  him  to  have  the  normal  use,  develop- 
ment, and  enjoyment  of  every  limb  of  his  body  and 
every  faculty  of  his  spirit.  It  is  the  political  condition 
to  complete  human  welfare.  But  there  is  not  a  nation 
in  the  world  which  has  attained  it  yet.  It  is  the  ethic 
ideal  of  a  State  which  the  foremost  men  of  the  world 
are  striving  to  set  up.  It  can  only  be  reached  by  the 
gradual  development  of  human  nature,  which  can  take 
place  only  through  progression  by  experiment.  Some 
of  the  experiments  will  fail,  through  Mistakes  —  a  viola- 
tion of  the  rule  of  expediency ;  through  Errors  —  a  vio- 
lation of  the  rule  of  right,  wiU  fail  in  consequence  of 
man's  intellectual  or  moral  weakness.  If  the  failure  is 
persisted  in  misery  foUows,  and  at  length  destruction ; 
the  pain  warns  us  of  the  blunder. 

Now  I  have  not  heard  enough  to  show  in  all  cases 
how  this  suffering  proves  remedial,  and  to  demonstrate 
the  perfect  Providence  of  God  in  the  history  of  man. 
For,  to  do  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  an  amount 
of  knowledge,  both  of  human  nature  and  of  human 
history,  which  no  man  possesses  as  yet ;  which  perhaps 
it  is  not  possible  for  mortal  man  ever  to  possess.     But 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  331 

I  can  see  the  beneficent  effect  and  tendency  of  this  in 
so  many  cases,  that  the  general  analogy  is  clearly 
made  out,  even  without  recurring  to  the  Idea  of  God 
as  Infinite  to  "  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  to  man." 
Yet  without  that  Idea  I  confess  I  should  feel  little  gen- 
eral confidence  in  such  a  vindication. 

Look  at  some  of  the  examples  of  this  kind  of  suffer- 
ing. Here  are  nations  which  eminently  lack  National 
Unity  of  Action.  That  is  the  case  with  all  the  govern- 
ments in  Spanish  America.  The  Hispano- Americans 
have  not  yet  made  a  national  harness  which  will  hold 
aU  the  people.  Their  political  experiments  have  not 
succeeded  very  well.  Their  civil  instrument  is  a  poor 
tool,  which  works  rather  badly  and  hurts  the  nation's 
hand.  As  a  consequence  there  follows  a  great  deal 
of  suffering ;  the  nations,  each  taken  as  a  whole,  are 
poor  and  weak;  the  individuals,  taken  separately,  are 
also  poor,  ill-educated,  oppressed,  or  oppressing,  and  not 
enjoying  high  modes  of  happiness.  Their  suffering  is 
the  consequence  of  their  economical  Mistakes  and  moral 
Errors. 

But  how  shall  they  ever  get  a  better  form  of  govern- 
ment ?  Only  by  making  the  trial.  And  if  they  suffered 
no  pain  from  the  present  failure  they  would  make  no 
effort  for  future  success.  The  pain  urges  them  con- 
tinually to  alter  and  mend.  They  cannot  be  rich,  happy, 
well  educated,  nor  even  tranquil,  until  they  have  this 
national  Unity  of  Action.  Hence  they  are  in  a  state  of 
continual  disturbance  and  fermentation.  Mexico  alone 
has  had  twenty-seven  revolutions  in  less  than  thirty 
years.  Would  it  be  a  good  thing  if  God  were  by  mir- 
acle to  remove  this  power  to  suffer  on  account  of  these 
causes  ?    Shall  he  miraculously  give  them  a  constitution 


332  PROVIDENCE. 

and  frame  of  government;  and  miraculously  dispose 
all  men  to  accept  it?  That  would  be  to  treat  those 
Creoles  like  mules  and  oxen,  not  like  men.  A  woman 
wishes  to  walk  cool  in  the  summer's  heat ;  shall  God 
miraculously  give  her  the  great  shadow  of  a  peculiar 
cloud,  or  leave  her  to  make  her  own  umbreUa,  and  walk 
rejoicing  in  its  shade  ? 

Here  are  other  nations  which  as  eminently  lack  Indi- 
vidual Variety  of  Action  —  Spain,  Italy,  Austria,  Tur- 
key, Russia,  not  to  mention  others.  A  great  amount 
of  force  must  be  misdirected  by  the  nation,  as  a  whole, 
to  keep  the  individuals  in  their  unnatural  condition: 
as  a  consequence  there  is  a  diminution  of  the  productive 
power  of  the  people  as  a  whole  —  soldiers  and  police- 
men so  numerous,  mechanics,  merchants,  farmers,  so 
rare,  —  and  accordingly  the  nations  are  poor,  and  the 
government  unstable  and  corrupt.  Individual  men 
suffer  from  the  unnatural  restriction.  This  twofold 
misery  is  the  unavoidable  consequence  of  their  political 
Error,  it  notifies  men  of  the  failure  of  their  experiment. 
But  the  mischief  can  only  be  got  rid  of  by  making 
new  political  experiments.  The  national  tool  works 
badly,  it  hurts  the  hands  of  the  People ;  they  must  take 
it  again  to  the  forge,  heat  and  warm  it  over  anew  in 
some  other  revolution  and  make  a  political  instrument 
better  suited  to  the  work  they  wish  to  accomplish. 
Shall  God  alter  the  nature  of  man  to  accommodate  the 
Spaniard,  the  Neapolitan,  and  the  Turk,  making  human 
welfare  to  come  from  tyranny  and  ignorant  exploitation 
of  the  People  as  well  as  from  a  wise  and  just  frame  of 
government  ?  Shall  he  miraculously  prevent  the  anxiety 
of  a  tyrant,  or  the  misery  of  his  victim  ?  A  woodman's 
axe  is  dull ;   shall   God  alter  the  constitution  of  the 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  333 

trees,  and  increase  the  toughness  of  the  woodman's 
arms ;  or  leave  him  to  sharpen  his  axe,  and  then  hew 
down  the  trees  with  more  comfort  ? 

Look  at  the  human  race  as  one  person :  from  the 
beginning  till  now  man  has  been  devising  an  instru- 
ment to  produce  welfare.  Every  experiment  has  been 
a  partial  success,  each  also  a  partial  failure.  So  far  as 
the  attempt  succeeded  the  result  has  been  delightful ;  so 
far  as  it  failed,  painful.  Suffering  follows  Error ;  man 
abandons  the  Error,  aboHshes  the  mischief,  tries  again, 
making  out  better  next  time.  The  pain  has  only  been 
adequate  to  sharpen  his  wits,  like  hunger  and  thirst  to 
make  him  work  in  other  forms.  Thus  man  gets  his  po- 
litical education  and  political  enjoyment.  He  tries  des- 
potism —  that  tool  does  not  please  him ;  then  a  mon- 
archy, then  an  aristocracy,  then  a  republic,  and  improves 
continually  in  his  constitutions  as  in  his  agricultural 
and  military  tools.  Man  in  his  political  development 
hitherto  has  not  suffered  proportionately  more  than  a 
little  girl,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  in  growing  up 
to  womanhood.  But  no  one  complains  and  thinks  it  an 
Absolute  Evil  that  the  wind  sometimes  blows  off  the 
hat  of  the  little  maiden;  that  she  now  and  then  falls 
down  and  soils  her  frock;  that  her  hoop  runs  off  the 
side-walk ;  or  that  she  fails  to  get  the  right  conjunction 
in  her  French  exercise  and  cries  with  chagrin  at  the 
recitations.  Mankind,  like  little  Miss,  suffers  from  cor- 
responding evils,  has  the  diseases  of  childhood,  in  a  po- 
litical form.  Anarchy,  despotism,  revolutions,  —  these 
are  the  measles  and  whooping-cough  of  the  human  race, 
one  day  to  be  outgrown.  The  present  political  condi- 
tion of  mankind  as  much  belongs  to  the  present  age  of 
mankind  and  comes  as  naturally  in  the  process  of  human 
development,  I  take  it,  as  the  greenness  of  apples  be- 


334  PROVIDENCE. 

longs  to  the  month  of  June,  and  the  immaturity  of  boy- 
hood to  early  years.  Shall  we  complain  that  the  boy  is 
not  born  a  man  grown  ;  that  the  apple  is  not  mature  in 
June  instead  of  October  ? 

Political  Oppression  in  its  many  forms  is  one  of  the 
worst  evils  which  now  afflict  the  enlightened  nations. 
But  it  comes  unavoidably  from  the  nature  of  man  — 
finite  and  progressive  in  his  social  as  well  as  his  indi- 
vidual condition.  For  human  development  it  is  neces- 
sary that  men  should  gather  in  large  masses,  in  nations ; 
to  accomplish  that  political  experiments  are  necessary ; 
the  first  attempt  of  a  finite  and  free  creature  is  not  likely 
to  succeed  and  produce  the  effect  which  is  ultimately 
desirable  ;  the  experiment  may  faU,  and  its  failure  must 
bring  pain.  Besides,  man  is  politically  progressive,  and 
outgrows  his  institutions  as  the  individual  his  baby- 
clothes.  Those  which  pleased  him  once  become  a 
source  of  pain,  no  longer  suiting  the  altered  condition 
of  the  race.     Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  pain  is  a  warning. 

Sometimes  we  can  see  the  particular  good  results 
brought  about  by  some  special  evil.  The  Boston  Port- 
Bill,  the  Stamp  Act,  with  the  other  oppressive  legisla- 
tions of  England,  hastened  the  separation  of  the  Amer- 
ican child  from  her  mother  —  to  the  lasting  gain  of  both 
and  also  of  the  human  race.  A  thinking  man  sees  man- 
ifold examples  of  this  sort  in  all  the  history  of  mankind, 
God 

"  From  seeming  evil  still  educing  good, 
And  better  thence  again,  and  better  still 
In  infinite  Progression." 

Suppose  man  had  been  made  incapable  of  suffering 
from  pohtical  Errors,  when  they  came  in  the  experi- 
ments of  the  race.     The  Hebrews  would  have  been  con- 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  335 

tent  under  the  taskmasters  of  Egypt,  and  so  have  con- 
tinued slaves  until  they  were  degraded  beyond  possi- 
bility of  elevation  on  earth :  till  they  perished  outright. 
If  the  Puritan  had  not  smarted  from  the  oppression  he 
suffered,  he  would  have  borne  it  patiently  till  now ;  and 
have  become  what  despots  love  —  a  passive  tool  of 
tyranny ;  the  world  would  have  lost  the  brave  develop- 
ment of  manhood  which  has  come  from  that  hardy 
stock.  The  horse  and  the  ass  are  the  servants  of  man ; 
they  do  not  suffer  from  that  state  of  subordination ; 
they  take  it 

"  With  a  patient  shrug,  — 
For  sufferance  is  the  badge  of  all  the  tribe,"  — 

and  are  content.  Treat  them  kindly,  give  them  enough 
to  eat,  do  not  overwork  them,  and  you  have  done  the 
beast  no  \\Tong.  The  dog  is  the  only  animal  perhaps, 
who  voluntarily  puts  himself  under  the  protection  of 
man.  He  does  not  suffer  by  human  subordination ;  it 
does  not  necessarily  debase  him,  or  prevent  his  develop- 
ment and  his  canine  welfare.  If  his  pliant  nature  yields 
to  man's  plastic  hand,  and  takes  new  forms,  his  happi- 
ness has  also  new  forms.  "  What  a  generosity  and 
courage  he  will  put  on  when  he  finds  himself  main- 
tained by  a  man,  who  is  to  him  instead  of  a  God,  or 
Melior  Natura  1 "  But  man  is  debased  by  such  subor- 
dination ;  and  if  he  did  not  suffer  and  smart  when 
another's  will  was  imposed  on  him,  the  degradation 
would  be  ruin  before  he  was  aware  of  the  peril.  If  he 
did  not  smart  with  pain  under  analogous  thraldom, 
when  treated  well,  well  fed,  well  clad,  and  not  over- 
worked, the  nations  had  been  slaves  this  day  to  a  few 
men  with  minds  full  of  mastery. 

The  ruder  a  na^tion  is,  the   less   developed   in  the 


336  PROVIDENCE. 

higher  faculties,  the  more  external  force  is  necessary  to 
keep  individuals  together  and  in  order.  But  the  less  is 
such  force  debasing  or  painful  to  the  sufferer.  It  re- 
quires more  external  force  to  establish  national  Unity 
of  Action  in  Russia  than  in  America;  the  constraint 
which  a  Russian  needs  and  bears  without  pain,  would 
be  intolerable  to  a  New  Englander,  or  a  Briton. 

Much  misery  appears  in  a  Social  Form,  the  conse- 
quence of  Errors  made  in  organizing  men  into  commu- 
nities. The  ethic  ideal  of  society  is  an  organization  of 
men  and  women  so  skilfully  constructed  that  each  man 
shall  do  the  normal  work  which  he  can  do  best,  with 
the  most  advantage  to  himself  and  to  all  his  fellows ; 
that  he  shall  develop  harmoniously  all  his  faculties 
with  entire  natural  freedom,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
the  advantage  of  the  aid  and  companionship  of  other 
men,  all  likewise  doing  their  best  thing.  Here  there 
will  be  a  perfect  Social  Unity  of  Action  and  at  the 
same  time  perfect  Individual  Variety  of  Action  —  nor- 
mal personal  freedom.  On  the  one  hand,  there  will 
appear  the  Solidarity  of  Mankind,  at  least  of  the  spe- 
cial community ;  on  the  other  the  Sacredness  of  the 
Individual.  Each  man  will  be  deemed  a  Fraction  of 
society  and  so  a  factor  in  its  product,  but  also  an  In- 
teger ;  and  both  the  functions,  that  of  the  fraction  and 
the  integer  will  be  sacredly  respected.  In  this  case  the 
social  usages,  and  the  public  opinion  they  rest  on,  will 
correspond  exactly  with  the  faculties  of  man  in  their 
actual  state  of  development ;  and  with  the  natural 
moral  laws  of  God.  There  will  be  the  same  blending 
of  the  centripetal  power  of  the  whole  and  the  centrifu- 
gal power  of  the  individual  into  that  cosmic  harmony 
which  I  spoke  of  before,  whereby  f*  the  most  ancient 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  337 

Heavens  are  fresh  and  strong."  Then  the  various  per- 
sons of  the  community  will  work  together  with  as  little 
friction  as  the  Planets  in  their  course ;  with  as  little 
waste  as  the  forces  which  form  a  rose  or  a  lily.  The 
laws,  customs,  and  habits  of  society  will  be  just  and 
natural.  There  will  be  no  crime,  —  no  man  sacrificed 
to  another  man,  or  to  the  mass  of  men.  There  will  be 
no  pauperism  because  no  laziness,  no  waste,  and  no 
rapacity :  a  diversity  of  functions,  but  concentric  unity 
of  purpose  and  a  combination  of  efforts  to  achieve  it. 
Every  man  will  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  himself, 
with  his  fellow  men,  and  with  Nature,  —  in  perfect  cir- 
cumstances. So  he  will  be  in  perfect  health  both  of 
body  and  spirit.  Labor  will  be  as  delightful  to  men  as 
to  emmets,  beavers,  and  robins  building  their  nests : 
birth,  life,  death,  all  will  be  natural,  all  beautiful.  Such 
is  the  ethic  ideal  of  a  community.  Nothing  less  wUl 
correspond  to  the  nature  of  man  and  the  normal  mode 
of  action  of  the  human  powers;  nothing  less  to  the 
social  moral  law  of  God. 

But  there  is  no  such  community  in  the  world ;  there 
never  has  been.  Behold  what  pain  and  misery  come 
of  our  attempts  to  organize  men  !  A  community  is  at 
present  a  jumble  of  human  forces ;  not  a  concord,  but 
a  discord.  How  many  men  are  out  of  their  natural 
sphere !  This  man  was  born  a  hunter,  but  he  sits  un- 
easily on  a  shoemaker's  bench  all  his  life,  dyspeptic  and 
ill  tempered.  How  many  an  idle  profligate  is  cursed 
by  the  money  which  his  ancestors  gathered  together, 
his  riches  hindering  his  manly  development !  How 
many  are  covetous  and  grasping !  Think  of  the  want 
and  the  crime  ;  think  of  the  licentiousness  and  intem- 
perance ;  of  the  sickness  which  cuts  off  such  hosts  of 
men  in  childhood,  while  only  here  and  there  one  dies  a 

29 


338  PROVIDENCE. 

natural  death.  Consider  all  the  ghastly  forms  of  irregu- 
lar action  which  you  find  in  a  great  city,  in  Boston, 
New  York,  London.  Think  of  the  indispensable  at- 
iendants  of  a  great  town  —  hospitals,  asylums  for  the 
crazy  and  the  old,  for  orphan  babes,  almshouses,  jails  of 
manifold  denominations  —  the  moral  sewerage  of  the 
town,  —  of  the  police,  swarming  like  buzzards  in  the 
s'reets  to  remove  the  refuse  of  mankind.  The  consta- 
ble never  sleeps.  The  jail-van  is  always  in  motion. 
Law  and  crime  jostle  each  other  in  all  the  street.  Glut- 
tony and  beggary  meet  at  every  corner.  St.  James  and 
St.  Giles  glower  at  each  other  in  Christian  London. 
The  angel  of  mercy  follows  the  footsteps  of  the  pros- 
titutes, and  watches  over  the  bedside  of  her  brother 
who  made  them  such.  What  pain  and  misery  in 
modern  society !  Boston  is  one  of  the  most  favora- 
ble specimens  of  a  modern  town,  almost  equally  charita- 
ble and  rich,  but  even  here  a  good  man  can  hardly  walk 
the  public  streets  and  then  repeat  his  private  prayers 
without  a  shudder,  —  his  heart  making  great  leaps  as 
he  remembers  the  ignorance  and  misery  about  him. 

This  suffering  is  an  "  abomination  to  the  Lord,"  as 
much  as  the  older  heathen  form  of  making  children 
"  pass  through  the  fire  unto  Moloch ;  "  it  is  against  the 
ideal  of  human  nature.  But  if  you  look  a  moment  you 
see  the  cause  of  the  misery  and  its  function.  Man  is 
finite,  social,  gifted  with  partial  freedom,  progressive 
also.  Sociality  on  a  large  scale  is  indispensable  to  his 
development ;  great  cities  are  as  necessary  for  mankind 
as  a  garment  for  a  boy.  They  have  ever  been  the  fire- 
places of  human  education  —  intellectual,  moral,  and 
religious  development.  Man's  advance  in  general  de- 
velopment must  take  place  by  the  aid,  in  part,  of  large 
combinations  of  men.     To  form  them,  nay,  to  group  a 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  339 

hundred  men  together,  he  must  make  experiments. 
They  may  fail  through  Errors  or  Mistakes.  All  hu- 
man advance,  social  or  individual,  is  progression  by  ex- 
periment. If  men  do  not  suffer  from  the  failure  they 
wiU  not  know  it  is  a  failure ;  wiU  continue  it  and 
perish. 

Suppose  men  made  a  social  experiment  and  it  failed 
in  consequence  of  the  intellectual  or  moral  deficiency 
of  the  projectors,  because  it  did  not  fulfil  the  economi- 
cal, or  moral  conditions  of  social  well-being ;  suppose 
we  did  not  suffer  pain  from  the  consequences  of  this 
Mistake  and  Error,  and  consequently  continued  in  it  and 
never  rectified  what  was  amiss  in  our  experiment  ; 
would  that  be  a  better  scheme  than  the  present  one  ? 
It  is  as  idle  to  grumble  at  Providence  because  men  suf- 
fer from  social  Mistakes  and  Errors,  as  to  find  fault 
with  God  because  a  miU  does  not  grind  corn  when  its 
wheels  are  placed  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  dam.  I 
wish  to  write,  but  have  put  no  ink  in  my  pen.  Shall 
God  fiU  it  for  me  mu-aculously ;  or  enable  me  to  write 
with  a  dry  quill  ?  He  gave  me  the  head  and  hand  to 
furnish  ink  withal ;  mankind  the  head  and  hand  to 
organize  communities  aright.  My  disappointment  and 
the  world's  misery  notify  us  to  take  heed. 

When  the  social  machine  is  so  constructed  that  it 
provides  shelter,  food,  raiment,  education  deficient  in 
quality  or  in  quantity,  or  distributes  these  needful 
things  in  an  unnatural  and  therefore  unsatisfactory 
manner,  is  it  not  a  wise  and  benevolent  contrivance 
that  pain  should  warn  us  of  the  Mistake  and  Error  ? 
If  the  bodies  of  the  neglected  poor  did  not  shiver  with 
cold  and  damp  and  wet ;  if  they  did  not  ache  with  hun- 
ger, with  fear,  and  the  troop  of  ghastly  diseases  which 
invade  the  rearward  ranks  of  men  in  aU  our  human 


340  PROVIDENCE. 

march ;  if  ennui  and  the  multiform  maladies  of  body 
and  spirit  did  not  attack  and  disturb  the  class  of  men 
whose  natural  social  burdens  are  borne  by  others ;  if 
crime  did  not  rise  up  and  cry  with  its  inarticulate  mow- 
ings against  the  social  waste  and  wrong ;  if  the  exploi- 
tered  servant  did  not  take  his  revenge  by  unfaithful- 
ness ;  if  the  neglected,  the  poor,  the  outcast,  did  not 
steal  and  rob,  burn  houses,  and  murder  men ;  if  the 
slave  did  not  run  away,  did  not  waste  his  employers^ 
goods,  and  slay  their  children ;  if  the  spoiled  child  did 
not  turn  out  a  profligate,  and  gnaw  the  bosom  which 
bore  him,  —  men  would  persevere  in  their  social  folly 
and  perish.  Animals  are  unconsciously  taught  by  in- 
stinct —  gregarious  not  social.  Their  organization  into 
packs  and  flocks  and  herds  is  made  ready  for  them  like 
the  pattern  of  their  nests,  and  the  garment  which  grows 
on  their  shoulders.  Man  is  consciously  teachable,  self- 
instructive  ;  he  learns  by  experiment ;  not  merely  gre- 
garious but  social,  he  is  to  construct  his  own  social 
organization,  as  his  garments  and  his  house.  There  is 
always  power  enough,  intellectual  and  moral,  in  each 
generation  of  men  to  construct  the  social  or  poHtical 
organizations  which  that  generations  needs,  which  cor- 
respond to  its  state  of  development  at  that  time.  This 
is  ideally  demonstrable  —  for  it  follows  by  unavoidable 
deduction  from  the  infinite  perfection  of  God ;  and  his- 
torically demonstrable  from  all  the  past  ages  of  hu- 
man progress  and  the  present  condition  of  men.  But 
as  men  have  a  partial  freedom,  they  may  use  or  neglect 
this  power  of  social  organization.  If  they  neglect  the 
means  which  God  has  provided  as  adequate  for  his 
purpose  and  their  social  welfare,  is  it  not  benevolent 
in  him  to  make  things  so  that  pain  shall  ring  an 
alarm  bell,  as  it  were,  and  warn  us  of  the  Error  ?     If 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  341 

I  will  not  put  my  cloak  about  me  when  the  north 
air  bites,  shall  God  abolish  winter  to  save  me  the  trou- 
ble of  thought  ?  If  I  have  sense  enough,  and  yet  will 
eat  green  apples  and  not  ripe  ones,  is  it  not  well  that  I 
suffer  ? 

Suppose  that  men  not  only  suffered  no  pain  in  con- 
sequence of  their  social  folly  in  violating  the  natural 
law  of  the  universe,  but  they  did  not  die  in  consequence 
of  the  error.  Then  the  first  experiment  would  be  the 
last ;  there  would  be  an  end  of  progress.  We  should 
advance  no  more  than  the  beavers,  or  the  bees.  So 
there  would  be  no  continued  growth  of  the  faculties  of 
mankind,  no  consequent  increase  of  happiness,  no  qual- 
itative advance  in  mode,  no  quantitative  in  degree. 
Man  would  have  stopped  long  ago  in  some  low  stage 
of  development ;  perhaps  never  have  advanced  beyond 
the  culture  of  the  men  w^ho  have  grown  up  amongst 
wolves  in  Hindostan,  —  a  barking,  a  ferocious,  and  a 
stupid  pack. 

I  know  how  terrible  this  suffering  is,  how  much  in 
quantity,  of  a  quality  how  sad ;  how  many  innocent 
men  suffer  from  the  average  folly  of  mankind,  through 
no  Mistake  or  Error  of  their  own.  But  take  the  whole 
world  together  this  pain  is  not  in  excess,  and  its  func- 
tion is  plainly  benevolent.  Before  us  marches  the  at- 
tractive Idea  of  better  things,  a  pillar  of  fire  continually 
advancing  towards  the  promised  land  w^hich  flows  with 
milk  and  honey ;  behind  us,  the  Egyptian  host  of 
ignorance,  and  fear,  and  tyranny,  and  want,  drive  us  on. 
Both  are  ministers  of  God's  Providence. 

See  what  evil  comes  in  the  Domestic  Form.  The 
ethic  ideal  of  a  family  demands  the  marriage  of  loving 
men  and  women  to  their  loving  mates,  two  equivalent 

29* 


342  PROVIDENCE. 

and  free  persons  uniting  in  connubial  love,  manhood 
and  womanhood  combining  into  humanity.  But  are 
such  marriages  common?  Is  the  wife  thought  the 
equal,  the  equivalent  of  the  husband;  is  the  family  al- 
ways based  on  love,  connubial,  parental,  filial,  friendly 
love  ?  The  masculine  element  oppresses  and  enslaves 
the  feminine.  Man  exploiters  woman  all  the  world 
over.  How  many  live  unmarried  —  against  their  na- 
ture, against  their  conscious  will.  Polygamy  prevails 
"  over  three  quarters  of  the  groaning  globe."  In  Chris- 
tendom the  marriage  of  one  to  one  is  the  ecclesiastic 
and  legal  ideal,  the  marriage-type.  Is  it  also  the  fact? 
How  much  is  there  of  involuntary  singleness  —  painful 
and  against  nature ;  how  much  vice  of  many  forms, 
odious  to  the  thought ;  what  unhappiness  from  ill- 
assorted  wedlock  begun  in  haste,  repented  of  at  leisure, 
but  made  permanent  by  statute  and  public  opinion? 
What  a  world  of  misery  comes  from  the  Mistakes  and 
Errors  men  have  made  in  the  domestic  organization  of 
mankind  and  womankind ! 

Here  the  same  reasoning  applies  —  the  proximate 
cause  of  the  misery  is  the  Mistake  ;  the  function 
thereof  is  to  warn  men  and  stir  them  to  better  ex- 
periments. AU  this  matter  of  love  might  have  been 
settled  by  laws  that  could  not  be  broke,  and  like  oaks, 
with  no  chance  of  mistake,  men  might 

"  languidly  adjust 
Their  vapid,  vegetable  loves  with  anthers  and  with  dust," 

or  like  the  free  birds  of  heaven  be  mated  by  instinct, 
Does  any  one  think  that  would  be  an  improvement? 
Attracted  by  the  Ideal  of  a  perfect  family,  driven  by 
pain  from  the  actual,  mankind  moves  on,  each  genera- 
tion of  Jacobs  and  Rachels  improving  over  the  family 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  343 

of  their  predecessors,  and  with  a  continual  increase  of 
domestic  bliss.  The  pain  which  comes  from  married 
and  unmarried  Error  is  not  excessive  for  its  work. 
Look  the  world  over,  disguising  nothing,  and  you  see 
how  nicely  this  misery  is  fitted  for  its  function  and  one 
day  it  will  end.  Only  the  boy  cries  over  his  multiplica- 
tion table. 

See  the  evil  which  comes  of  Mistakes  and  Errors  in 
Keligion  —  from  Errors  about  Piety  its  sentimental 
part,  about  Theology  its  theoretical  part,  and  Morality 
its  practical  part.  Absolute  Religion  is  the  service  of 
the  Infinite  God  by  the  normal  use,  development,  and 
enjoyment  of  every  limb  of.  the  body,  every  faculty  of 
the  spirit,  every  power  which  we  possess  over  matter  or 
man.  This  is  a  service  which  is  "  perfect  freedom." 
This  is  the  Ideal  of  religion ;  nothing  short  of  this 
answers  to  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  and  the  natural 
law"  of  God.  Every  thing  short  of  this  is  an  Error,  or 
a  Mistake. 

But  no  considerable  body  of  men  has  yet  attained 
this  Form  of  Religion.  It  is  not  consciously  made  the 
ideal  of  any  sect  of  religionists  in  the  world.  How 
much  suffering  arises  from  the  common  notions  of  re- 
ligion in  the  most  enlightened  nations  !  I  have  spoken 
of  this  so  often  in  previous  sermons  that  it  is  needless 
to  say  much  now.  But  what  fear  among  "  Believers  " 
of  the  popular  theology,  what  littleness,  what  absurd 
singleness  of  the  soul  which  longs  for  union  with  God ; 
what  meanness  and  cowardice  is  found  in  men  who  try 
to  wring  and  twist  themselves  into  the  spiritual  contor- 
tions demanded  by  Hebrew,  Mahometan,  or  Christian 
Priests  !  "What  spiritual  hunger  is  there  of  Unbelievers ! 
The  ecclesiastical  bodies  founded  on  the  popular  Mis- 


344  PROVIDENCE. 

takes  and  Errors  —  how  impotent  they  are  to  lead  the 
nation  to  any  great  good  work!  What  manifold  evils 
come  of  this  cause !  Look  at  the  condition  of  the 
Christian  world:  its  general  Theology  scornfully  re- 
jected by  scientific  men ;  the  Roman  Church  dead ; 
the  Greek  Church  for  many  centuries  without  life ;  the 
Protestant  churches  of  Europe  divided,  feeble,  ruled 
like  armies  by  kings ;  and  in  many  places  what  is  offi- 
cially called  "  Religion,"  exacted  of  the  people  by  the 
tax-gatherer  and  the  constable ;  the  churches  of  Amer- 
ica divided,  wrangling,  and  all  unable  to  direct  in  nat- 
ural ways  the  immense  energies  of  this  great  Common- 
wealth ;  —  nay,  not  daring  to  oppose  the  colossal  Errors 
and  Sins  of  the  nation,  or  even  to  rebuke  the  political 
atheism  which  denies  the  Higher  Law  of  God !  See 
what  imbecility  comes  from  a  theology  which  calls  on 
its  followers  to  renounce  reason ;  for  the  sake  of  being 
spiritual,  to  give  up  the  exercise  of  their  spirit.  What 
pain  comes  from  belief  in  eternal  punishment,  the  priest 
tormenting  men  before  their  time !  What  misery  comes 
from  fearing  a  dreadful  God !  Look  at  the  oppression 
still  practised  in  the  name  of  religion  —  in  Italy  men 
shut  in  a  Christian  jail  for  reading  the  Christian  Bible ; 
in  almost  every  Christian  state  laws  forbidding  freedom 
of  speech  on  matters  relating  to  Christianity,  the  gal- 
lows reaching  its  arm  over  the  pulpit.  See  how  many 
men  in  America  are  driven  to  infidelity,  to  denial  of  all 
conscious  religion,  by  the  absurdities  taught  in  its 
name ;  how  many  are  annually  forced  to  hospitals  for 
lunatics,  incurably  crazed  by  what  is  called  religion. 
Acquisitiveness  is  doubtless  the  disease  of  America  just 
now ;  but  the  lust  of  money  is  les's  powerful  than  the 
popular  theology  in  bringing  men  to  public  Bedlam. 
The  theological  mistake  is  incidental  to  human  na- 


THE  ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  345 

ture,  —  finite,  free,  progressive;  the  misery  is  an  una- 
voidable result  of  the  mistake,  and  has  a  benevolent 
function  under  the  Providence  of  God.  As  perfect 
Cause  he  foreknew  the  history  of  mankind,  all  our  Mis- 
takes in  religious  matters,  and  wisely  put  pain  as  an 
unavoidable  consequence  of  avoidable  Mistakes  and 
Errors.  If  the  mass  of  men  in  Northern  Europe  had 
not  suffered  from  the  false  theology,  false  morality,  false 
piety,  and  manifold  oppression  in  the  name  of  God  im- 
posed on  them  by  the  Roman  church,  the  world  had 
been  tinder  Leos  and  Juliuses  and  Adrians  to  this  day. 
Had  not  the  unsatisfactory  schemes  of  the  Roman, 
Grecian,  Hebrew  theologies  given  pain  to  mankind, 
Christianity  would  have  perished  with  Jesus ;  nay,  if 
men  had  not  suffered  from  the  mistakes  of  Egyptian 
priests,  Moses  would  never  have  led  Israel  out  of  the 
iron  house  of  bondage  and  the  gross  darkness  which 
covered  the  people.  The  oxen  suffer  not  from  the  let- 
ters which  their  master  burns  upon  their  horns;  the 
Roman  ass  is  not  pained  by  the  image  of  St.  Anthony 
which  his  superstitious  master  puts  on  him  with  a 
priestly  blessing;  if  men  suffered  no  more  from  false 
ideas  of  religion,  we  should  be  as  oxen  and  asses, 
driven  by  other  masters,  and  that  to  our  ruin. 

In  religion  as  elsewhere,  God  has  provided  for  a  con- 
tinual progress  ;  but  it  is  all  progression  by  experiment ; 
by  many  experiments  which  fail  we  reach  the  one  that 
succeeds,  and  through  the  Red  Sea  escape  from  Egypt 
to  the  land  of  Promise.  How  long  it  took  mankind  to 
invent  a  machine  driven  by  a  river,  or  a  flame  of  fire, 
that  could  spin  and  weave  cotton !  And  does  it  appear 
strange  that  man  should  err  long  and  wide  before  he  at- 
tains a  perfect  scheme  of  religion  ?  Fetichism  was 
once  a  triumph,  and  satisfied  the  aspirations  of  devout 


346  PROVIDENCE. 

mankind ;  next  man  outgrew  it,  but  cautious  and  con- 
servative still  sought  to  wear  the  strait,  scant  girdle 
which  devoured  his  loins  ;  at  length  urged  by  intol- 
erable pain,  attracted  by  a  better  idea,  he  threw  it  away. 
Polytheism,  Hebraism,  Classic  Deism,  Romanism,  have 
the  same  history,  the  same  fate  —  once  prayed  for,  then 
outgrown,  and  next  prayed  against  and  cast  away. 
But  the  good  of  each  is  continually  preserved.  The 
Mosaic  religion  was  an  advance  over  the  popular  ser- 
vice of  God  in  Egypt  four  thousand  years  ago;  the 
Jewish  form  of  Christianity  rose  far  above  Moses ;  the 
Pauline  form  transcended  that;  Romanism  is  a  com- 
promise between  the  Christianity  of  Paul,  the  Mosaism 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Polytheism  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  The  human  race  went  forward  as  they  be- 
came Catholic  Christians.  Luther  took  a  step  in  ad- 
vance of  Rome  ;  Zuingle,  Calvin,  his  fellow  reformers, 
great  men  all  of  them,  helped  us  still  further  on.  But, 
pained  by  their  imperfections,  cheered  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  the  soul  of  man  which  still  tells  of  lands  of 
promise  before  us,  and  still  sends  fire-pillars  in  every 
night  to  show  the  way  over  sands  that  furnish  water, 
and  through  rivers  which  dry  up  to  let  us  pass  —  the 
race  still  journeys  on  from  Thebes  to  Jerusalem,  from 
that  to  Rome,  thence  to  Wittenberg,  Basle,  Geneva, 
Westminster ;  and  there  is  no  end.  Every  step  in  re- 
ligion is  an  experiment ;  if  a  wrong  step  it  is  painful. 
But  the  pain  is  medical.  The  fires  of  Moloch  in  Syria  ; 
the  harsh  mutilations  in  the  name  of  Astarte,  Cybele, 
Jehovah ;  the  barbarities  of  imperial  pagan  tormentors  ; 
the  still  grosser  torments  which  Romano- Gothic  Chris- 
tians in  Italy  and  Spain  heaped  on  their  brother  men, 
the  fiendish  cruelties  to  which  Switzerland,  France,  the 
Netherlands,  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  America  have 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  347 

been  witness,  are  not  too  powerful  to  warn  men  of  the 
unspeakable  evils  which  follow  from  Mistakes  and 
Errors  in  this  matter  of  religion.  The  present  sufferings 
from  belief  and  unbelief,  it  is  easy  to  learn  the  lesson 
which  they  read.  If  we  misuse  the  deepest  and  most 
powerful  force  in  man,  the  pain  which  comes  therefrom 
must  needs  be  great.  To  pluck  out  a  hair  brings  little 
pain  ;  but  to  rend  off  a  limb,  to  tear  out  an  eye  —  a 
dreadful  misery  forbids  that  sacrilege.  Did  not  pain 
warn  the  Christian  nations,  the  Protestant  and  the 
Catholic,  as  it  ever  has  warned  all  loiterers,  all  wan- 
derers, we  should  stray  further  and  further  from  our 
God,  or  else  stop  in  our  onward  march ;  and  in  either 
case  lose  the  progressive  joy  of  manly  development  of 
our  religious  powers. 

There  is  now  intellectual  and  moral  power  enough 
active  in  the  present  generation  to  correct  the  evils  of 
the  popular  theology  of  Christendom,  the  defects  of  its 
ecclesiastical  machinery,  and  so  to  remove  the  suffering 
which  comes  from  that.  If  we  fail  to  apply  these 
powers  to  this  work,  it  is  surely  wise  in  the  great 
Father  to  have  so  made  the  world  that  pain  shall  at 
length  compel  us  to  put  off  the  shoe  which  pinches,  and 
not  suffer  the  foot  to  be  spoiled. 

This  fourfold  Error  in  the  formation  of  the  State,  the 
Community,  the  Family,  and  the  Church  —  has  brought 
a  flood  of  misery  upon  the  world.  But  it  has  forced 
mankind  to  a  fourfold  improvement  —  political,  social, 
domestic,  religious  ;  to  a  fourfold  increase  of  human 
delight  and  blessedness.  Every  age  has  power  to  mend 
its  machinery  and  to  devise  better.  These  Mistakes 
and  Errors  were  foreseen  by  the  Infinite  God,  at  the 
creation,  provided  for,  and  the  checks  to  them  all  made 


348  PROVIDENCE. 

ready  beforehand.  Even  here  there  is  nothing  imper- 
fect, but  the  motive,  material,  purpose,  and  means  con- 
tinually reveal  the  infinite  perfections  of  God. 

You  see  how  a  child  makes  Mistakes  in  getting  com- 
mand of  his  body;  how  he  stumbles  in  learning  to 
walk  and  hurts  his  limbs  by  the  fall ;  but  his  wise 
mother  cheers  and  encourages  him.  How  he  hurts  his 
hands  and  feet  before  he  learns  the  qualities  thereof,  and 
their  normal  relation  to  the  things  they  touch !  What 
experiments  he  makes  that  fail  before  he  learns  the 
economic  conditions  which  hedge  him  in!  See  how 
mankind  toils  and  experiments  in  getting  the  entire 
command  of  any  of  our  present  instruments,  living 
or  inanimate.  What  pain  comes  of  each  Mistake! 
The  ox  gores  his  master ;  the  horse  throws  him ; 
Actaeon's  hounds  devour  their  lord  —  it  is  more  than 
fable ;  the  Pine-bender  is  snatched  up  in  his  own  tree. 
What  a  useful  thing  is  fire ;  what  a  powerful  instru- 
ment in  the  world's  civilization!  It  has  been  domes- 
ticated, I  doubt  not,  some  twenty  or  thirty  thousand 
years.  But  even  now  what  Mistakes  we  make  in  its 
use ;  what  evils  it  brings !  not  a  venturesome  baby  in  the 
best  ordered  family,  but  puts  his  finger  to  the  flame  and 
starts  when  that  schoolmaster  sharply  reminds  him  of 
the  distinction  between  the  Me  and  the  Not- Me  ;  not  a 
little  village,  never  so  dull,  but  it  loses  now  and  then  a 
house,  or  barn,  by  this  unruly  servant ;  not  a  city  but 
has  its  conflagration,  its  police  and  engines  to  quell  the 
element  and  keep  the  fire  within  its  limits.  Condense 
a  thousand  million  men  to  one  great  consciousness  ; 
consider  the  human  race  as  one  man  twenty  or  thirty 
thousand  years  old,  all  his  burnings  do  not  make  a 
greater  proportionate  amount  of  sufiering  than  what 
befals  our  venturesome  weanling  who  puts  his  disobe- 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  349 

dient  fingers  in  the  candle's  flame.  Would  it  be  be- 
nevolent in  God  to  take  from  boy  or  man  the  possibility 
of  a  Mistake  in  the  use  of  fire,  the  consciousness  of  pain 
firom  such  a  Mistake  ? 

Steam  will  probably  work  as  great  a  change  in  the 
affairs  of  man,  in  domestic,  social,  political  relations, 
as  fire  has  done  hitherto.  But  see  what  havoc  it  now 
makes  of  human  life,  with  such  reckless  men  in  America 
tumultuating  over  land  and  water  so  heedless  of  the  un- 
changing laws  of  God.  What  pain  we  suffer  in  getting 
command  of  this  instrument !  It  has  been  so  with  all 
the  forces  of  Nature  which  man  has  tamed  and  domes- 
ticated. The  entire  amount  of  suffering  is  always  pro- 
portionate to  our  lack  of  skill  to  manage  the  instru* 
ment;  the  more  valuable  the  forces  are  the  longer  it 
takes  to  learn  all  their  powers  and  acquire  the  full  mas 
tery  over  them.  It  is  easy  to  tame  a  dove,  hard  to  do- 
mesticate thunder  and  lightning. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  their  were  three  Magi  in  Eu- 
rope, new-comers,  looking  for  One  born  king  of  the 
world,  —  Mariner's  Compass,  Gunpowder,  Printing- 
Press,  such  were  their  titles.  What  a  world  of  mis- 
chief they  wrought,  disturbing  everybody,  —  coasters, 
crossbowmen,  scribes!  What  spread  of  mischievous 
falsehoods  took  place;  what  slaughter  of  men;  what 
shipwreck  in  mid  ocean !  How  grim  they  looked ! 
But  those  Magi  all  three  of  them  came  out  of  the 
eternal  East  of  human  consciousness  ;  following  "  the 
star  which  once  stood  still  over  a  stable,"  they  now  fall 
down  before  Democracy,  the  Desire  of  aU  Nations; 
while  Herod  seeks  the  young  child's  life  to  destroy  him, 
they  open  their  treasuries  and  present  gifts,  their  gold, 
frankincense,  and  myrrh. 

Now  to  get  the  fuU  mastery  over  the  spirit  of  man, 

30 


350  PROVIDENCE. 

to  learn  all  the  complicated  powers  of  mind  and  con- 
science, heart  and  soul,  so  that  mankind  shall  know 
all  their  modes  of  action,  individual  and  social,  as  the 
chemist  and  the  housewife  know  the  powers  and  modes 
of  action  of  fire,  or  as  the  engineer  knows  the  powers 
and  capabilities  of  steam ;  to  provide  these  various 
complicated  and  progressive  faculties  with  their  proper 
harness  and  machinery  —  political,  social,  domestic,  ec- 
clesiastic, —  for  all  their  manifold  purposes  —  that  is  a 
task  far  greater  than  the  taming  of  cattle,  the  domesti- 
cation of  fire  and  steam;  far  more  difficult,  requiring 
far  more  time  for  the  work,  and  demanding  innumerable 
experiments,  continued  for  thousands  of  years,  each  in- 
cidentally subject  to  failure,  and  that  unavoidably  at- 
tended by  pain  and  misery  which  can  only  be  removed 
by  correcting  the  Error,  and  mending  the  Mistake. 
But  the  misery  is  all  along  remedial,  is  never  excessive 
for  its  work  and  function.  God  achieves  the  maximum 
of  effect  with  the  minimum  of  means;  the  maximum 
of  welfare  with  the  minimum  of  misery.  The  whole 
amount  of  pain  endured  by  mankind  from  political, 
social,  domestic,  and  religious  Mistakes  and  Errors,  in 
the  whole  human  history,  is  of  a  merciful  and  educa- 
tional character;  comes  from  the  same  cause,  for  the 
same  purpose,  as  the  pain  of  burning  the  finger  when 
thrust  into  a  flame,  and  bears  no  greater  relation  to  the 
whole  consciousness  of  mankind  than  the  suffering  of 
an  ordinary  child  in  growing  up  to  maturity. 

It  is  true  the  sufferings  are  often  borne  by  such  as 
had  no  part  in  producing  the  cause  of  suffering ;  nay, 
who  sought  to  remove  it,  and  on  earth  their  misery  is 
not  adequately  compensated,  —  but  this  life  is  only  a 
part  of  the  whole  human  duration,  half  a  hundred 
years  out  of  eternity.     The  infinite  Justice  of  God  — 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  351 

foreknowing  all,  provided  for  every  thing,  before  the 
world,  or  an  atom  thereof,  was  embarked  on  its  endless 
voyage  —  must  have  provided  a  compensation  some- 
where. This  retribution  to  the  parts  which  suffer  from 
the  Errors  of  the  whole  must  take  place  somewhere  in 
the  world  created  by  the  perfect  Cause,  controlled  by 
the  perfect  Providence ;  for  it  is  impossible  that  the 
Infinite  God  should  create  from  an  imperfect  motive, 
of  imperfect  material,  for  an  imperfect  purpose,  or  as 
imperfect  means  thereto.  When  I  cannot  unriddle  the 
details  and  see  how  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  are  to 
be  recompensed  for  their  early  and  violent  death,  how  a 
recompense  is  to  be  afforded  to  the  poor  daughter  of 
want,  whom  the  Errors  of  society  force  unconscious 
into  degradation,  into  crime,  and  an  unnatural  grave, 
half  immature  in  body  and  wholly  undeveloped  in  all 
the  high  qualities  of  womanhood,  I  am  ready  to  trust 
the  Infinite  God.  The  warrant  of  ultimate  human  wel- 
fare is  indorsed  on  every  person,  on  each  living  thing, 
in  the  handwriting  of  the  infinite  God;  and  though  I 
could  not  trust  the  promise  of  any  of  the  popular  finite 
deities,  I  am  as  sure  of  the  Infinite  God  as  I  am  that 
one  and  one  make  two,  or  that  I  myself  exist.  The 
instinctive  desire  of  human  nature  is  God's  Promise  to 
pay  ;  Eternity  his  time. 

Then  look  at  the  pain  and  misery  which  come  from 
the  intellectual  Mistakes  and  moral  Errors  of  mankind ; 
leave  out  nothing,  diminish  nothing,  look  St.  Giles'  in 
^the  face ;  study  the  sufferings  of  all  the  Irelands  of  the 
earth ;  confront  all  the  wars  of  the  world ;  meet  eye  to 
eye  that  most  hideous  of  living  monsters,  American 
Slavery,  the  lifeblood  of  three  million  men  dripping 
from  the   democratic   hand  ;  —  examine   the   political, 


352  PROVIDENCE. 

social,  domestic,  and  religious  wretchedness  of  mankind, 
does  it  amount  to  Absolute  Evil  ?  Is  there  any  reason 
to  think  so  ?  Surely  not.  Are  present  pain  and  misery 
excessive  for  their  unavoidable  and  merciful  function  ? 
Scrutinize  with  the  nicest  analysis  of  science,  and 
you  must  confess  that  so  far  as  the  facts  are  known 
the  benevolence  of  Providence  perpetually  appears ;  and 
so  far  as  the  analogy  reaches  the  same  conclusion  fol- 
lows. 

Then  comes  the  scientific  idea  of  the  Infinite  God  to 
fill  up  the  chasms  which  science  leaves  unfilled.  A 
church,  a  family,  a  community,  a  State,  is  each  a  ma- 
chine formed  of  human  materials,  wherewith  to  achieve 
the  religious,  domestic,  social,  and  political  welfare  of 
mankind :  if  the  machine  be  a  poor  or  ineffective  tool,  is 
it  plainly  wise  and  merciful,  nay,  just  and  loving,  that 
pain  should  warn  us  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  instru- 
ment ;  and  repeat  the  warning  till  we  have  abandoned 
it  and  made  a  wiser  experiment  ?  As  the  centripetal 
and  centrifugal  forces  in  the  solar  system  are  just  suffi- 
cient to  keep  each  planet  in  its  orbit,  rythmically  wheel- 
ing about  the  sun,  with  no  deficiency,  and  no  redun- 
dance, so  is  the  pain  which  follows  human  Error  but 
just  enough  to  warn  us  of  the  ruin  and  hold  us  back. 
The  astronomical  conclusion  is  mathematically  demon- 
strable from  the  facts  of  observation  and  the  intuitions 
of  consciousness;  the  human  conclusion  is  not  yet 
inducible  from  facts  of  observation,  but  deducible  with 
most  rigorous  science  from  the  idea  of  God  as  Infi- 
nite. The  amount  of  misery  is  a  variable  quantity,, 
controlled  by  the  conduct  of  mankind  ;  we  diminish  it 
just  as  we  learn  and  keep  the  natural  laws  6f  God,  the 
original  human  means  he  has  provided  for  his  divine 
purpose. 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  353 

So  much  for  the   Evil  which  comes  from  Mistakes 
and  Errors. 


Look  next  at  the  Evil  of  Sin  —  the  pain  and  misery 
which  come  thereof.  A  man  knows  the  moral  law  of 
God ;  he  has  learned  it  by  experiment,  or  by  intuition 
which  anticipates  experience ;  he  knows  the  true,  the 
moral  beautiful,  the  just,  the  affectional,  the  holy. 
Conscience  is  powerful  enough  to  say  "  Thou  ought- 
est ! "  There  it  stops  and  leaves  us  free  to  obey,  or 
disobey.  It  does  not  say,  "  Thou  must !  Thou  shalt! " 
It  does  not  hold  us  bound.  I  know  the  right ;  I  have 
the  power  to  do,  or  to  refuse  to  do  it.  That  is  my  free- 
dom, my  most  subtle,  most  dangerous  gift;  it  is  the 
most  precious  too.  Perhaps  I  shall  not  do  the  right  I 
know  I  ought ;  I  will  not  make  the  ideal  of  my  moral 
nature  the  actual  of  my  daily  work.  If  the  moral  or 
religious  faculty  compelled  me,  I  should  be  its  slave ; 
not  a  free  man,  only  a  bare  tool  of  the  Almighty.  If 
conscience  compels  me  to  realize  the  Ideal  it  reveals,  if 
the  affections  force  me  to  live  out  my  ideal  love  for 
man,  and  the  soul  constrain  me  to  acts  of  holiness,  then 
I  only  gravitate  to  my  ideal ;  I  cease  to  be  a  free  spirit- 
ual individuality.  It  is  not  I  that  love,  but  the  force 
which  acts  through  me,  foreign  though  divine.  I  obey 
it  voluntarily,  then  the  will  of  God  becomes  my  per- 
sonal act,  I  am  a  conscious  co-worker  with  the  Infinite. 
I  am  not  a  moral  fossil,  not  a  moral  animal,  but  a 
moral  man.  I  feel  at  one  with  myself;  all  my  high 
faculties  consent  to  the  Ideal  of  my  conscience  and  con- 
form in  this  act  of  wiU.  I  am  self-balanced  ;  my  own 
centre  of  gravity  is  my  centre  of  motion  also  ;  my  will 
accords  with  the  will  of  God ;  he  and  I  are  at  one ; 

30* 


354  PROVIDENCE. 

his  will  my  work.  I  have  the  delight  of  my  freedom 
well  employed. 

If  I  do  not  obey  my  sense  of  right,  straightway  there 
comes  remorse  ;  I  gnaw  upon  myself.  My  wrong  dis- 
turbs the  integrity  of  the  universe.  I  am  not  at  ease. 
Conscious  of  violating  my  own  integrity,  I  feel  ashamed 
and  inwardly  tormented  because  the  ideal  of  my  mind 
and  conscience,  heart  and  soul  is  not  the  actual  of  my 
conduct. 

This  is  the  first  subjective  consequence  of  Sin ;  it  is 
a  form  of  pain  peculiar,  distinct  from  all  other  modes 
of  suffering.  I  suppose  every  grown  man  knows  what 
it  is.  I  will  not  speak  from  observation  of  others,  but 
&om  consciousness  and  my  own  inward  experience ;  I 
laiow  the  remorse  which  comes  from  conscious  viola- 
tion of  my  own  integrity,  from  treason  to  myself  and 
my  God,  from  consciousness  of  sacrificing  my  univer- 
sal Ideal  of  the  true,  the  just,  the  moral  beautiful,  the 
afFectional,  the  holy,  to  some  private  personal  caprice. 
It  transcends  aU  bodily  pain,  all  grief  at  disappointed 
schemes,  all  anguish  which  comes  from  the  sickness ; 
yea,  from  the  death  of  dear  ones  prematurely  sent 
away.  To  these  afflictions  I  can  bow  with  "  Thy  will, 
not  mine,  be  done."  But  remorse,  the  pain  of  Sin  — 
that  is  my  work.  This  comes  obviously  to  warn  us  of 
the  ruin  which  lies  before  us ;  for  as  the  violation  of 
the  natural  material  conditions  of  bodily  life  leads  to 
dissolution  of  the  body,  so  the  wilful,  constant  viola- 
tion of  the  natural  conditions  of  spiritual  well-being 
leads  to  the  destruction  thereof.  So  the  pain  of  re- 
morse comes  wisely  and  mercifully  to  warn  me  from 
my  ruin.  It  anticipates  the  outward  consequence  ;  it 
comes  as  the  disagreeable  smell,  or  warning  look,  or 
repulsive  taste  of  poison.      A  State   with   no  statute 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  355 

against  high-treason,  no  punishment  therefor,  would 
be  exceedingly  imperfect.  Remorse  is  the  subjective 
consequence,  the  penal  retribution ;  yea,  the  medicine 
and  cure  for  this  high-treason  against  the  soul  and 
against  its  God. 

The  outward  consequences  of  Sin  are  the  same  as 
those  of  Error  or  Mistake,  and  require  no  specific  de- 
scription. 

Sin  is  a  wrong  choice ;  a  preference  of  the  wrong  way 
to  the  right  one.  No  man  loves  the  wrong  for  its  own 
sake,  as  an  end,  but  as  a  means  for  some  actual  good  it 
is  thought  to  lead  to.  It  is  one  of  the  incidents  of  our 
attempt  to  get  command  over  all  our  faculties.  In 
learning  to  walk,  how  often  we  stumble ;  we  stammer 
in  attempts  to  speak;  and  babies  babble  long  before 
they  talk.  In  learning  to  read,  to  write,  how  children 
mistake  the  letters,  miscall  the  sounds,  miswrite  the 
words!  Sin  is  a  corresponding  incident — we  learn 
self-command  by  experiments,  experiments  which  fail. 

I  think  this  evil  is  rather  underrated.  Consciously  to 
violate  the  integrity  of  your  spirit  is  a  worse  evil  than 
men  seem  to  fancy.  Oh  !  young  man,  expect  Error  of 
yourself,  expect  Mistakes.  Your  eye  deceives  you,  so 
may  your  mind  and  conscience,  your  heart  and  soul. 
Expect  also  analogous  wanderings  in  getting  self-com- 
mand. But  do  not  tolerate  any  conscious  violations  of 
your  own  integrity ;  the  experience  of  that  will  torment 
you  long,  till  sorrow  has  washed  the  maiming  brand  out 
of  your  memory,  and  long  years  of  goodness  have  filled 
up  the  smarting  scar.  Men  grown  see  the  right,  see  it 
plainly ;  it  does  not  serve  their  special  turn,  in  trade,  in  • 
politics,  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  or  of  power.  They 
trample  their  ideal  underfoot.     The  subjective  pain  and 


356  PROVIDENCE. 

misery  which  comes  thereof,  is  a  just  and  merciful  con- 
trivance of  the  eternal  Father. 

There  are  men  of  little  excellence  but  of  great  con- 
ceit, bigoted  men,  wonted  to  the  machinery  of  social 
and  ecclesiastical  routine,  their  wheels  deep  in  the  ruts 
of  custom,  omitting  the  weighty  matters  of  love  to  men 
and  God ;  who  tithe  mint,  anise,  and  cumin,  and 
thank  God  continually  that  they  are  not  like  the  publi- 
can ; .  to  such  men  a  sin,  a  rousing  public  sin,  will  do 
good,  and  in  heaven  they  may  thank  God  for  it.  I 
have  known  such  men,  and  have  thought  if  they  could 
commit  some  great  Sin,  they  might  become  less  sinful. 
Jesus  told  a  rich  man,  —  probably  one  wedded  to 
wealth, — to  sell  all  he  had  and  give  to  the  poor. 
There  are  men  so  conceited  with  their  own  excellence, 
and  besotted  with  custom,  that  I  have  sometimes 
thought  the  same  Jesus  would  tell  them  to  do  some 
monstrous  thing  and  get  ashamed  of  themselves,  and 
learn  how  worthless  is  their  self-conceit.  But  the 
Sin-cure,  even  for  such  a  man,  is  like  healing  rheuma- 
tism by  burning  the  afflicted  member  to  the  bone. 

As  we  get  command  over  the  body  only  by  exper- 
iment, learning  to  run,  to  walk,  to  swim  only  by  trial ; 
as  by  experiment  we  learn  the  rules  of  expediency  and 
of  right,  learning  each  with  many  Mistakes  and  Errors, 
with  many  a  pain ;  so  by  experiments  are  we  to  learn 
the  proper  uses  of  the  will,  to  keep  the  law  of  God 
when  known.  It  is  only  in  this  way  that  the  individ- 
ual, the  family,  the  community,  the  State,  the  world 
knows  the  power  of  the  personal,  or  the  accumulated 
will,  and  how  to  keep  the  law  of  God  when  known. 
So  there  are  moral  experiments  in  all  these  forms,  and 
Sins  of  the  Family,  the  Community,  the  Nation,  and  the 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  357 

World,  which  come  as  incidents  of  human  development. 
The  pain  thereof  is  an  unavoidable  consequence  of  the 
transgression,  and  a  warning  that  the  trespass  has  been 
wrought.  I  am  glad  it  cost  me  efforts  to  learn  to  speak, 
to  walk,  to  know  the  rule  of  right,  else  were  I  less  a 
man.  The  pains  I  have  felt  from  Errors  here  are  joy- 
ous pains  at  last.  So  too  am  I  glad  God  gave  me 
power  to  go  astray  even  when  I  know  the  right ;  glad 
that  it  costs  me  hard  efforts  to  learn  the  uses  of  my  will, 
to  subject  the  transient  caprice  of  personal  desire  to  the 
eternal  true,  right,  moral  beautiful,  lovely  and  holy  of 
the  Infinite  God.  And  though  remorse  has  been  my 
keenest  pain  —  I  know  it  is  my  highest  birthright  w^hich 
the  pain  stands  over  and  guards  as  watchful  sentinel. 
At  the  creation,  the  perfect  Cause  knew  all  the  future 
wanderings  of  each  man,  the  Mistakes  of  the  intellect, 
the  Errors  of  the  conscience,  the  Sins  of  the  will ;  and 
as  the  check  thereto  he  mercifully  appointed  pain  to 
come  to  the  individual,  family,  community,  the  nation, 
and  the  world. 

Theologians  often  talk  mythologically  about  Sin,  as 
if  there  was  something  mysterious  in  its  origin,  its  cause, 
its  process,  its  result,  and  final  end.  They  tell  us  that 
as  it  is  a  transgression  against  the  Infinite  God,  so  it  is 
an  Infinite  Evil,  meaning  an  absolute  evil,  demanding 
an  eternal  punishment.  To  this  scholastic  folly  it  is 
enough  to  reply,  that  if  sin  be  for  this  reason  an  Abso- 
lute Evil,  then,  the  smallest  suffering  coming  from  an 
Infinite  God  is  an  Infinite  Suffering,  and  cancels  the 
Sin. 

Sin  is  said  to  be  a  "  Fall ; "  yea,  as  the  child's  at- 
tempt to  walk  is  a  stumble.  But  the  child  through 
stumbling  learns  to  walk  erect ;  every  fall  is  a  fall  up- 


358  PEOVIDENCE. 

ward.  Creeping  is  an  advance  over  stillness,  stumbling 
over  creeping.  In  the  yearling  boy  the  feet  are  soft  and 
tender,  the  legs  feeble,  unable  to  sustain  the  pulpy 
frame.  But  the  instinct  of  motion  stirs  the  young 
master  of  creation  to  press  forward ;  not  content  with 
creeping  he  tries  to  walk,  he  falls,  and  cries  with  pain. 
He  dries  at  length  his  tears,  and  tries  and  falls  again, 
again  to  weep.  But  gradually,  by  trial,  the  limbs  grow 
strong,  the  eye  steady ;  he  walks  erect ;  he  runs  down 
steep  places ;  up  and  down  the  snow-clad  Alps  Hannibal 
marches  through  the  winter,  leading  his  army  of  men 
each  a  stumbling  baby  once. 

Through  weakness  of  mind  and  conscience  we  may 
err  —  the  Error  has  its  check,  and  Nature  has  the  cure. 
No  mistake  is  eternal.  At  first  the  little  child  pricked 
with  a  pin  only  feels  pained  in  his  general  consciousness, 
not  discriminating  the  special  spot  that  smarts.  By 
and  by,  instructed  by  experience  of  pain,  and  so  familiar 
with  the  geography  of  his  little  world  of  flesh,  when 
hurt  he  lays  his  hand  on  the  afflicted  spot  to  localize 
the  grief;  at  length  he  learns  to  scrutinize  the  cause  and 
to  apply  the  cure.  Thus  is  it  with  mankind.  Weak- 
ness of  the  Affections,  of  the  Soul,  of  the  WiQ,  is  not 
eternal.  Sin,  with  its  consequent  pain,  is  transient  as 
Errors  and  Mistakes.  Stumblings  of  the  body,  the 
mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul,  belong  to  baby- 
hood —  the  early  or  the  late ;  incidents  of  our  develop- 
ment. If  the  first  step  is  a  fall  —  the  step  is  still  a  pro- 
gress, the  fall  is  forward.  In  the  days  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  how  poorly  women  spun  and  wove. 
But  the  bungling  craft  of  Sarah,  Rebecca,  and  Rachel 
does  not  retard  the  mill  of  Manchester,  of  Lowell  and 
Ijyons.  From  Sarah  to  Jacquard  what  a  stride !  mill- 
ions of  experiments  that  failed  strew  all  the  way.     The 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  359 

mistakes  of  the  first  farmers  nobody  copies  now;  but 
the  cereal  grasses,  which,  as  the  story  tells,  a  mytho- 
logic  queen  first  brought  to  Italy,  all  round  the  tem- 
perate world  grow  corn  for  daily  bread.  What  have  I 
to  do  with  the  stammering  of  my  fathers  ten  thousand 
years  ago,  when  the  language  had  but  a  hundred 
words  perhaps  ?  Does  it  bar  me  from  eloquence  and 
all  the  nice  distinctions  of  scientific  speech  ?  Nay  my 
own  blunders  in  babyhood,  boyhood,  manhood  —  blun- 
ders of  the  body,  of  the  spirit  —  do  they  disturb  me 
now  ?  They  are  outgrown  and  half-forgot.  I  learned 
something  by  each  one.  So  is  it  with  Sin,  the  world's 
Sin,  your  Sin  and  mine.  Pain  checks  all  heedless 
motion  ;  we  learn  the  lesson  but  forget  the  pain. 

Men  start,  in  these  times,  with  the  idea  of  a  dreadful 
God,  who  made  men  badly  at  first,  and  then  set  them 
a-going;  when  they  stumble  he  falls  on  them,  brings 
them  to  the  ground  and  crushes  them  down  to  endless 
hell ;  only  a  few  he  sends  his  Son  to  help  and  lift  up  — 
all  the  rest  lie  there  and  rot  in  everlasting  woe.  The 
pain  of  this  folly  will  one  day  drive  us  from  the  greatest 
Error  of  the  human  race  —  from  the  belief  in  a  devilish 
God  and  an  eternal  Hell.  Our  successors  will  forget 
it  as  we  the  follies  of  our  sires  who  worshipped  stocks 
and  stones  before  they  dreamed  of  Odin  and  of  Thor. 


See  now  the  obvious  use  of  Pain  and  Misery,  —  they 
are  plainly  beneficent.  In  the  State,  the  Community, 
the  Family,  the  Church,  the  Individual  Man,  it  is  not 
hard  to  see  their  general  function.  Evil  is  partial. 
There  is  no  Absolute  Evil.  Man  advances  forever  — 
the  perfect  means  goes  forward  to  achieve  the  perfect 
purpose.     Man  oscillates  in  his  march   as   the  moon 


360  PROVIDENCE. 

nods  in  her  course.  Pain  marks  the  limit  of  his  vibra- 
tion ;  the  variables  of  human  caprice  are  perpetually 
controlled  by  the  constants  of  divine  Providence.  Once 
man,  prone  and  mute,  was  the  slave  of  Nature,  the 
absolute  savage,  the  wild  man  of  the  woods,  over- 
mastered by  his  elementary  instincts  which  so  jealously 
keep  watch  over  the  individual  and  the  race ;  that  com- 
rade of  the  wolf,  with  many  a  painful  step  has  jour- 
neyed on  —  his  life  a  progress,  his  march  triumphal. 
See  what  the  past  life  of  mankind  has  brought  about — 
fixed  habitations,  language,  letters,  arts,  science,  litera- 
ture, laws,  manners,  religion..  What  a  growth  from  the 
time  when  these  ten  fingers  were  the  only  tools  of  man, 
and  all  his  mightier  faculties  lay  below  the  horizon  of 
his  consciousness! 

Look  at  the  evils  of  our  time  —  as  political  oppres- 
sion, the  strong  nations  ruling  the  weak  with  iron  rods, 
the  government  exploitering  the  people;  look  at  war, 
at  social  oppression,  the  strong  laying  their  burdens  on 
the  weak,  in  this  age  of  commercial  tyranny,  at  despo- 
tism by  the  dollar  which  takes  the  place  of  the  old  des- 
potism by  the  sword;  look  at  slavery — total  in  Carolina, 
partial  in  all  Christendom ;  domestic  oppression,  woman 
exploitered  by  man ;  ecclesiastical  oppression  —  false 
Ideas  of  God,  of  Man,  of  the  Relation  between  the 
two  form  a  three-pronged  spear  wherewith  Superstition 
goads  the  race  of  men  in  all  lands.  Look  at  poverty, 
ignorance,  drunkenness,  prostitution,  murder,  theft,  and 
every  vice.  What  misery  comes  of  all  these  evils !  But 
they  were  all  foreseen  and  are  provided  for  in  the  care- 
ful housekeeping  of  God.  The  past  history  shows 
what  checks  there  always  have  been ;  what  powers 
come  forth  equal  to  each  emergency.  If  the  world 
were  to  end  to-day  —  it  would  seem  a  failure,  man's 


THE   ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  361 

desires  not  satisfied,  the  budding  promise  of  the  race 
not  growing  into  fruit,  or  even  flower.  But  this  is  only 
the  beginning  of  the  history  of  man  on  earth, 

'•  A  thousand  years  scarce  serve  to  form  a  State ; " 

many  a  thousand  years  there  must  be  to  form  the 
great  Commonwealth  of  Man  where  the  perfect  State, 
Community,  Family,  and  Church  shall  have  their  home. 
The  pain  of  Sin  is  the  pain  of  surgery,  nay,  the  pain 
of  growth.  My  sin-burnt  soul  dreads  the  consuming 
fire,  its  pain  a  partial  good.  God  provided  for  it  all, 
making  all  things  work  together  for  good.  My  suffer- 
ing shames  me  from  conscious  wrong,  stings  me  into 
efforts  ever  new ;  and  I  flee  from  consuming  Sodom 
with  a  swifter  flight.  The  loving-ldndness  of  the  In- 
finite Mother  has  provided  also  for  this  evil,  for  its  cure. 
There  is  retribution  ever3rwhere  —  for  I  am  conditioned 
by  the  moral  law  of  God.  In  youth  Passion  tempts 
me  to  violate  the  integrity  of  my  consciousness  with 
its  excess,  I  love  the  pleasure  of  the  flesh ;  in  manhood 
Ambition  offers  the  more  dangerous  temptation,  I  love 
the  profit  of  selfishness.  If  I  yield  and  sacrifice  the 
eternal  Beauty  of  the  true,  the  just,  the  good,  the  holy 
to  the  riot  of  debauch,  or  to  the  calculated  selfishness 
of  that  ambition,  there  comes  the  subjective  conse- 
quence,—  a  sense  of  falseness,  of  shame,  a  loathing 
of  myself,  the  leprous  feeling  that  I  am  unclean, 
the  sleepless  worm  which  gnaws  the  self-condemning 
heart ;  then  comes  the  outward  evil,  the  resultant  of  my 
wrong,  —  men  band  against  me,  to  check  my  wicked 
deeds.  One  wheel  is  blocked  by  remorse ;  and  human 
opposition  holds  the  other  fast.  So  suffering  keeps  my 
wrong  in  check.     I  am  thus  pained  by  every  evfl.  thing 

31 


362  PROVIDENCE. 

I  do.  In  the  next  life  I  hope  to  suffer  till  I  learn  the 
mastery  of  myself,  and  keep  the  conditions  of  my 
higher  life.  Through  the  Red  Sea  of  pain  I  will 
march  to  the  promised  land,  the  divine  Ideal  guiding 
from  before,  the  Egyptian  Actual  urging  from  behind. 

Liability  to  Mistake,  to  Error  and  to  Sin,  is  the  in- 
dispensable condition  of  human  freedom.  That  is  not 
absolute  but  partial,  relative.  I  know  the  Infinite  Fa- 
ther holds  the  line  which  tethers  me ;  that  He  gave  to 
man  this  human  nature  in  us  aU,  with  just  the  quality 
and  quantity  of  powers  needful  as  means  to  execute 
his  perfect  purpose  and  fulfil  his  perfect  motive.  I 
know  that  he  will  draw  us  back  and  lead  us  home  at 
last,  losing  none  of  his  flock,  dropping  no  son  of  per- 
dition by  the  way ;  but  a  great  ways  off"  meeting  his 
prodigals  a-coming  home,  or  if  they  only  wiU  to  come ; 
yea  he  has  means  which  move  their  will  without  con- 
straint, for  he  is  Infinite  God,  the  perfect  Cause,  the 
perfect  Providence.  The  world  he  makes,  fi*om  a  per- 
fect motive,  of  a  perfect  material,  for  a  perfect  purpose, 
and  as  a  perfect  means,  is  the  best  world  which  the  in- 
finite God  could  make;  the  best  of  all  possible  Crea- 
tors must  make  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds  —  with 
the  minimum  of  pain  securing  the  maximum  of  bHss. 

Men  often  exaggerate  the  amount  of  Sin  —  its  quan- 
titative evil,  not  its  qualitative.  Much  which  passes  by 
this  name  is  Mistake,  or  Error ;  many  depraved  deeds 
are  done  with  little  depravity,  perhaps  with  none.  I 
see  the  evUs  which  come  of  conscious  or  unconscious 
wrong.  Here  are  men  who  walk  the  streets  self-mutilated 
of  limb,  or  feature,  by  violation  of  the  body's  laws ;  others 
maimed,  stiU  worse,  of  limb,  or  feature,  of  the  spirit.  Is 
their  Error,  their  Sin,  an  Absolute  Evil  ?  The  Infinity 
of  God  forbids.    The  Man-butcher  of  New  Zealand,  the 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  363 

Man-stealer  of  New  England  have  not  fallen  beyond 
lifting  up.  One  day  the  better  nature  of  each  shall  be 
wakened.  Even  such  transgression  is  not  absolute. 
The  high-priests  in  Jerusalem  who  paid  Judas  his  thirty 
pieces,  the  price  of  blood  shed  by  his  treachery;  the 
low  priests  in  Boston  who  paid  the  latest  kidnapper  his 
fee,  their  praises  and  their  prayers,  alike  the  price  of 
blood  shed  by  his  treachery,  they  are  under  the  Provi- 
dence of  the  Infinite  Mother  who  at  the  beginning  pro- 
vided for  all  of  her  children.  All  these  shall  one  day 
measure  their  lives  by  the  golden  rule  of  Love. 

I  see  the  enormous  mass  of  human  misery  which 
comes  of  Mistakes,  Errors,  Sins.  I  see  its  cause;  I 
know  its  prophecy.  It  tells  me  of  the  vast  powers  of 
man  —  of  the  individual,  and  the  race.  The  power  of 
wrong  is  but  a  mistaken  power  of  right.  The  wicked 
Statutes  men  enact,  come  as  incidents  in  the  nation's 
moral  growth ;  the  wars,  the  tyrannies,  the  slaveries  of 
old  time  and  modern  days,  are  wanderings  from  the 
path  we  are  to  take ;  local,  partial,  only  for  a  time. 
The  devastations  wrought  by  misdirection  of  the  relig- 
ious faculty  reveal  its  power,  and  foretell  its  normal  tri- 
umph in  time  to  come.  I  lift  my  eyes  from  the  present 
to  the  past.  What  a  triumphal  progress  has  been  the 
march  of  man!  Still  is  the  human  face  set  forward. 
The  Cannibal  in  New  Zealand  is  far  above  the  wolf- 
bred  child  in  Hindostan ;  far  before  the  merely  savage 
man.  Even  the  Kidnapper  of  New  England  is  in  ad- 
vance of  the  Cannibal  of  the  Pacific.  The  increase  of 
crime  in  aU  Europe  since  the  revival  of  letters,  marks  a 
step  forward.  Immortality  is  for  each  man.  Eternity 
stretches  out  before  the  race.  And  in  the  protracted 
childhood  and  great  Errors  of  man  I  foresee  his  manly 
and  majestic  march  in  days  to  come.     God  bound  the 


364  PEOVIDENCB. 

beasts  ;  it  was  in  mercy  to  them.  Only  by  change  of 
body  can  the  adult  animal  advance.  For  them  there  is 
no  progress  of  the  family,  the  tribe,  or  race.  Little  is 
left  for  then-  free  choice ;  so  as  they  venture  little,  they 
win  no  more.  The  God  of  oxen  provides  for  them  as 
Infinite  Providence,  by  his  will,  not  their  own.  But 
the  larger  venture  in  man  is  liable  to  worse  contingen- 
cies of  ill ;  destined  also  to  pf oduce  a  higher  resultant 
of  bliss. 

Tell  me  of  war,  of  slavery,  of  want,  of  political,  social, 
domestic  oppression ;  tell  me  of  the  grim  terrors  of  the 
Popular  theology  —  its  religion  a  torment,  its  immor- 
tality a  curse,  its  deity  a  devil ;  tell  me  of  Atheism,  its 
doubt,  its  denial,  its  despair,  —  its  here  and  no  Here- 
after, its  body  without  a  Soul,  its  world  without  a 
God ;  —  tell  me  what  pain  and  misery  come  of  all  these, 
and  by  the  greatness  of  the  aberration  I  measure  the 
greatness  of  the  orbit  and  the  orb  ;  for  in  the  centre  of 
the  universe,  its  ever  present  Cause,  its  ever  active 
Providence,  I  see  the  Infinite  God,  I  feel  him  immanent 
in  every  particle  of  matter,  in  each  atom  of  Spirit ;  and 
how  can  I  fear  ?  The  nodding  of  a  school-boy's  top  is 
not  the  measure  for  the  oscillations  of  a  world. 

The  greatest  present  evil  is  small  compared  to  what 
man  has  already  lived  through  and  so  far  overpowered, 
that  most  men  deem  it  blasphemy  to  say  they  ever  were. 
Absolute  Evil  is  not  in  Error,  its  misery  is  its  check, 
points  to  its  cure,  helps  to  its  end.  Is  it  in  Sin  ?  Yea, 
if  Sin  were  endless ;  to  act  wrong,  think  wrong,  feel 
wrong,  be  wrong,  —  at  variance  with  self,  with  Nature 
and  with  God  —  that  is  misery,  absolute  evil  were  it 
endless.  Not  only  is  all  the  analogy  of  the  universe 
against  the  monstrous  thought,  each  drop  of  Science 
drained  off  from  the  world  of  space  and  time  corroding 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  365 

and  eating  away  this  ugly  thing ;  but  the  Idea  of  God's 
Infinite  Perfection  annihilates  the  boyish  dream.  Sup- 
pose I  am  the  blackest  of  sinners,  that  as  Cain  I  slew 
my  brother,  as  Iscariot  I  betrayed  him  —  and  such  a 
brother  —  or  as  a  New  England  kidnapper  I  sold  him  to 
be  a  slave  —  and  blackened  with  such  a  sin  I  come  to 
die  —  still  I  am  the  child  of  God,  of  the  Infinite  God ; 
he  foresaw  the  consequences  of  my  faculties,  of  the  free- 
dom he  gave  me,  of  the  circumstances  which  girt  me 
round,  and  do  you  think  he  knows  not  how  to  bring  me 
back,  that  he  has  not  other  circumstances  in  store  to 
waken  other  faculties  and  lead  me  home,  compensating 
my  variable  hate  with  his  own  Constant  Love ! 

"  Come,  then,  expressive  silence,  muse  his  praise.'* 


THE  END. 


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